Dream Girl
by Blackened
Summary: A familiar figure haunts Squall's dreams... probably not who you may be expecting though... COMPLETE (25604)
1. Dream Girl

Disclaimer: I do not own FF8 or FFX-2 they are property of Square Enix. As are characters of aforementioned titles. I am only borrowing them for this fic which is a non-profit production so don't sue me!  
  
Dream Girl  
  
The figure stood before him, her back to him yet her face turned to him looking over her shoulder with a passive expression. They was definitely a she, no man could have such a figure or hold their body in that slightly curved way that was nonchalant yet subtly sexy.  
  
She was dressed all in black leather that had a variety of silver buckles and red belts attached. She wore a strange pair of trousers, more like shorts with the leg pieces added later like stockings. The shorts and leggings were buckled down the sides and she wore black boots.  
  
In a strange coincidence she wore two belts like he did but while both his were red hers was a black leather one with a skull buckle and another made of strange silver coins on red strips.  
  
Her shoulders were bare to the elements as was her abdomen, her only top a wide strip of black leather folded over, the inner fold studded with small silver squares and it was held together with a large ornate cross.  
  
Two red leather strips ran down the length of her body either side of her neck running down her back and stomach under her shorts and attached to her leggings while a thin black buckled belt was wrapped around her abdomen above her belly button. She also wore a black choker and a silver pendant on a chain around her neck.  
  
He continued to watch her as she stood there holding a long skull engraved sword in her gloved right hand, the glove reaching up to her elbow as it did on her other arm. As with the way she held her body her sword was held loosely yet as a blade user himself he knew she was ready to strike.  
  
If the way she dressed worried him in that it resembled his, then her face was more of a concern. Her hair was short, only reaching the base of her neck at the back while the fringe hung down over her eyes in large spiky strands whilst some of these pointed up, although her hair was more of a grey/silver than the brown his was.  
  
Her red eyes were intense yet gave nothing away and in the background he hear two female voices the sources unclear.  
  
'Give me a Y.' said one.  
  
'Give me a R.' chimed another.  
  
'Give me a break.' Replied the girl that he could see in a soft sultry voice.  
  
Squall awoke slightly annoyed. It had been the same thing every night for the last week. He saw this girl who resembled him so closely in looks and from what he could tell in personality as well, always with her back to him yet looking over her shoulder at him, ready to fight but always in a blank white room where other voices could come in.  
  
He wished he knew who she was, why she crept into his dreams at night and what it all meant.  
  
He rose from his bed stretching, he hadn't told Rinoa of this dream girl in case she felt he no longer loved her. But this girl somehow he was connected to her. 'Paine.' He caught himself saying and then his brow crinkled as he tried to figure out where it had come from.  
  
'You couldn't handle the truth.' A voice whispered in his mind.  
  
'What truth.' He snapped back in his thoughts.  
  
'That there are other worlds, dimensions, where people can be switched between.' The voice replied.  
  
'What are you trying to say?' Squall asked as he wandered over to his washbasin preoccupied by the voice.  
  
'I'm trying to say that you will never meet this Paine yet you will forever be tied to her.' The voice answered.  
  
'Where is she? Why do I dream of her? Who are you?' Squall quizzed the unknown voice trying to understand what was going on, if he was going insane.  
  
'She lives on a world called Spira although she wasn't born there. I am Fate, I control the destinies of all worlds, I choose the existence of human and the beings you call GFs. I decide when and where they shall be.' The voice told him.  
  
'Then why are you talking to me? An all-powerful being like you talking to a human like this. So you took this Paine to Spira from where? Does she know?' Squall replied strangely able to continue his routine while conversing with this so-called Fate.  
  
'You are one of my subjects, I feel I owe you an explanation. As for Paine no she doesn't know as far as she's concerned she is from Spira, you don't exist.' Fate explained their voice neither feminine nor masculine.  
  
'So you're responsible for what happened with Ultimecia?' Squall retorted in rising anger.  
  
'No she is the subject of another force, one I will not name. I was responsible for you and your friends defeating her... I made your lives the way they were so you'd be able to defeat her.' Fate replied calmly.  
  
'So every action I do is planned by you?' Squall snapped hating the idea of being controlled.  
  
'Not as such I only arranged matters so that when the time comes saviours like you will be able to do what you were born to do.' Fate answered ignorant of Squall's feelings.  
  
'I see so you made it so I'd be abandoned?' Squall asked trying to stay calm.  
  
'Yes I can see how much that troubles you but it made you the way you are, just as it did her.' Fate said enigmatically.  
  
'What did you do to her? Is that how we're connected?' Squall demanded curiosity rising.  
  
'Yes but the connection is closer than that... surely her name gives you a clue?' Fate teased.  
  
'Paine? So what of it?' Squall said but his jaw dropped as another name came to his mind and realisation dawned.  
  
'Paine... Raine... my mother? Are you saying she has something to do with Raine?' Squall asked flopping onto his bed as confusion flooded his mind.  
  
'Very much so... Paine is Raine's daughter. Raine died due to complications giving birth to twins.' Fate replied.  
  
'She's my sister!?' Squall exploded in shock and then added in anger 'Why did you let my mother die? Why did you take my sister?'  
  
Fate sighed 'I told you I arrange it for saviours to be in the right place at the right time. She will be a saviour of Spira against their new evil. As for Raine I couldn't control that, I cannot avert Death, I can only shape a person's life-path.' They explained.  
  
'My real Sis...' Squall mumbled to himself. 'I want to see her.' He demanded sitting up.  
  
'You already have.' Fate answered.  
  
'I mean for real. You owe me.' Squall said.  
  
'I owe you nothing. You do not understand how this universe works or the forces involved. Besides I'm not able to take you to Spira.. by the time you get there Paine will be long dead... Your birth was fortuitous in supplying me two saviours at the right time so I was able to transport one of you to Spira in time to be ready for the upheaval that would occur whilst leaving one here to face Ultimecia.' Fate said hollowly.  
  
'That's heartless..' Squall growled.  
  
'I have no need for emotion. I will do what it takes to make sure what needs to be done is achieved.' Fate snapped back.  
  
'Then why do I see her now? After all this time?' Squall asked unable to argue with the voice in his head.  
  
'That I do not know, but you now know the truth. As for how long it will last that I cannot answer either. I will leave you now Squall Leonhart, treasure the vision of your sister but do not wish for anything more... you still have further trials ahead.' Fate said and faded away leaving Squall in silence as he sat on his bed his mind a flame with all this information.  
  
Authors note: I haven't played FFX-2 yet so I don't know what Paine's story is. I saw a screenshot of her and just thought of her as a female Squall, which was the reasoning behind this fic and my interpretation. You're more than welcome to correct me if you've played FFX-2. As for the character of Fate, they're just a plot device I used in my fanfic Pointless which talks about GFs. 


	2. Tempting Fate

Author's note: The following chapters of this fic were not planned but were written at the request of a reviewer (they know who they are!). I just hope they like the way it continues (.  
  
His sister, torn from him without knowing, on an alien world that had been saved once yet was now in turmoil again. Would what was happening on this Spira occur here as well? Squall didn't give a damn he needed to see Paine, not just in a dream but in the flesh. This entity that called itself Fate had told him it wouldn't be possible, that he had more things to face. Well this was the trial he set for himself, to regain some of his family. His mother had died without him ever knowing her, his father abandoned him before he was born only for them both to be shown to him by his surrogate Sis in visions later in life.  
  
He couldn't face having Laguna Loire as a father, the bumbling fool still had hopes of reconciliation but Squall felt he had no right. Laguna made a choice and he couldn't take it back. But Paine and himself were not given any choices they were separated by both immense time and space if he were to believe what he had been told, just to fulfil some grand scheme. What about his needs? Where did they fit into this great scheme that was being played by these forces?  
  
He had been severed from all his human ties, made hollow and cold, and it seemed like Paine had been made that way. What had Fate done to her so that her personality paralleled hers? She had no knowledge of the truth, no idea that she was a stranger on an unnatural planet. Squall was angered as he thought of what possible losses and trials she had been subjected to at the whim of Fate.  
  
He stopped pacing his room, drumming his fingers on a desktop, his body performing continuous, repetitive motions as his mind was disconnected from what he was doing.  
  
'Shiva?' he finally uttered and there was faint sparkles of light, refracted beams in the crystals of ice and a cold breeze as Shiva materialised before him. She leant against the desk her pale blue hands gently resting on the edge as her deep blue eyes locked onto his.  
  
'Yes?' she asked of him demurely.  
  
'What do you know of Fate?' Squall asked trying not to bark the question out as a demand so he would not offend his Guardian.  
  
Shiva blinked slowly, her gaze shifting as she shrugged uncomfortably. 'It is not my place to say.' She answered finally.  
  
'Why not?' Squall retorted his anger rising from Shiva's betrayal in hiding something from him.  
  
'I am Fate's servant. They control my whole existence, where I go, how long I remain. I cannot go against them regardless of my ties to you.' Shiva replied softly.  
  
'I'm not asking you to go against them, I just want to know more about them.' Squall said persuasively.  
  
'You want to know because you want to see Paine.' Shiva quipped.  
  
'And what is wrong with wanting to see my sister?' Squall demanded.  
  
'It can't be done and it will do no good to get your hopes up.' Shiva told him softly looking into his eyes once more to prove her sincerity.  
  
'I don't believe that!' Squall said sweeping an arm through the air emphatically.  
  
Shiva sighed. 'You won't stop until I tell you will you?' she stated mainly as something to say for she knew him well enough to know how stubborn he was and how he'd pursue this till the end.  
  
Squall didn't answer and looked at her expectantly, sagging down onto his bed, anger and the urgency of his need for knowledge draining him momentarily.  
  
Shiva sat up on the desk to get comfortable since she knew she'd be in corporeal form for a while now. 'Fine. I guess I'd better start with the basics. There are four major entities that govern how the multiverse operates. These are Fate, Death, Time and The Other.' She explained her tone of voice becoming dark at the mention of the final name.  
  
'Only four forces? What about Life? Space? Matter? These four things control everything? And what's so bad about the last entity that neither you or Fate will name them?' Squall asked in a torrent of speech.  
  
'Yes only four. Death controls when mortal entities are born and die, Time controls the physical aspects of the multiverse such as Space and Matter, Fate shapes the existence of beings so that they can fulfil the roles they are required to do. Everything has to be balanced which is where the Other comes in, to name them is to bring their full focus onto you.' Shiva explained in more detail.  
  
'And where did they come from?' Squall asked intrigued.  
  
'That I do not know. I am merely a servant of Fate. I can sense when they are at work but I cannot fathom the why of what they are.' Shiva answered truthfully.  
  
'Okay so if this Spira is so far away that I'd never get there in Paine's lifetime then how could Fate take her there without her dying before she got there?' Squall asked changing his line of inquiry.  
  
'The entity being moved doesn't age, Fate uses the help of Time to remove them from their effects but time still occurs over the intervening space that there cross. Which is why it was fortunate that you and Paine were born as twins. The exact timing of your birth enabled Fate to get one of you to Spira in time to be of age when the Eternal Calm would be thrown into turmoil. It could have easily been you that had been sent.' Shiva explained wondering what he'd ask next.  
  
'I doubt it, unless Fate reinforced their choice by having me meet Rinoa. Or if Paine had stayed would Rinoa have been born male?' Squall thought out loud considering a weird alternative. 'Wait a second, how come you know so much about Spira?' he suddenly asked.  
  
'Because I've been there.' Shiva replied simply.  
  
'What?' Squall blurted surprised.  
  
Shiva rolled her eyes at him. 'Weren't you listening to me? I told you I'm a servant of Fate. I have less free will than you, I am sent to every dimension where we Guardians are needed. Sometimes simultaneously! You have no idea what it's like to have your mind fragmented, to have pieces of yourself fragmented across many planes of existence because multiple people are summoning you at the same time!' she told him exasperated.  
  
'I never realised you had it so tough... I'm sorry.' Squall apologised sympathetically. 'Wait, does that mean you're on Spira now?' he asked hopefully.  
  
Shiva shuffled awkwardly as she was expecting this. 'A part of me is, more of a reflection than of the real me since I was expelled from Spira when Yuna defeated Sin.' She replied.  
  
'Yuna? Sin?' Squall asked confused.  
  
Shiva sighed. 'Sin was a major destructive force on Spira for 1000 years, kinda like Ultimecia was here. Yuna was the hero, she and her friends did what they had to do to save the world, just like you did. However Yuna is now with Paine facing the new threat.' Shiva explained hoping Fate would not punish her for disclosing this information.  
  
'I see... and how many such worlds are there?' Squall asked wondering how many groups of lives had been led down the path of the torture of saviour- hood.  
  
'That is known only by the Four High Ones.' Shiva replied diplomatically.  
  
'So have you met Paine yet?' Squall asked eagerly.  
  
'Not that I am aware of. You must realise that on Spira we are not GFs, we were called Aeons and could only be called by a chosen few. Paine is not one of them and she wasn't in Yuna's group during the time I was there, my reflection left on Spira however will be faced by Paine and destroyed, that is all I know.' Shiva told him in ambiguously.  
  
'I cannot help you in what you wish Squall, no matter how much you ask. I'm sorry.' She whispered softly and faded away leaving Squall to his thoughts, drowning in this sea of information. 


	3. Dream Guy

She awoke, sunlight streaming through the window onto her face through the bare windows above her. The sky was cloudless and light blue, which was to be expected as the airship Celsius flew above the clouds continually seeking orbs.  
  
Her life hadn't changed drastically since she had joined the Gullwings although she'd never be influenced by Rikku and Yuna's cheerfulness to change from her stoic ways. Her whole life up to this point had been a series of trials and she smiled wryly as she felt so far that coping with Rikku was the hardest.  
  
Rikku's constant prying was a problem, especially now she had shed some light on her past what with how their situation was changing and the arrival of Shuyin, the double of this Tidus character that Yuna was so stubbornly seeking.  
  
The truth was that she was forged by a lifetime of suffering under Sin like all people of Spira and then survived the hell of the Den of Woe when she had been chosen to participate in Operation Crimson. Strange how the other three survivors Baralai, Gippal and Nooj all came to become the leaders of the three main factions that arose after the fall of Yevon. The fact that the Gullwings had been pulled into this mystery of Vegnagun and were constantly being opposed to those three meant she had to reveal more of herself than she liked.  
  
But now Paine had a new secret, one that had plagued her ever since that bitch of an Ice Queen Shiva got in a lucky hit. Her nightmares of the Den of Woe had been replaced by an eerie and perplexing figure, a strong young man with a strange sword merged with a gun. He dressed in black, with slashes of red, his brown neck length hair billowing around his face.  
  
She watched him from overhead as if floating above him unnoticed by him, unable to tear away from his somehow familiar presence. She watched him square off to a taller young man with blonde short-cropped hair and a perpetual smirk. This figure also wielded a strange sword-gun and was shrouded in a grey trench coat that rippled in the wind.  
  
She watched them fight, blades clashing and sparking under the ferocity of the blows. The familiar figure seemed to be winning but was caught off guard as the smirking figure's hand erupted in a ball of flame, knocking him back and to his knees. She saw his grey eyes open wide as the smirking figure's sword came sweeping down and slashes his face in an explosion of blood and pain that made Paine wake up every time the dream recurred.  
  
She didn't understand what it meant or who those figures were. Had she been touched by the remnant powers of the Fayth when Shiva impaled her shoulder, seeing one of their dreams just like how Yuna's Tidus was their dream made flesh?  
  
She decided not to dwell on it, she had enough on her plate with Vegnagun and she didn't want anything affecting her concentration or being brought to Rikku and Yuna's attention.  
  
"Paine" a soft voice whispered making her spin round. The only person present in the cabin was the hypello Barkeep and she knew it wasn't his voice.  
  
She sat up on the bed wondering if she was imagining things or that it was the after effect of the dream. Her forehead ached and she placed a hand to it only to be surprised when it came away wet with sticky blood. She fought the urge to panic and stood up to look at her reflection in the glass above her and was puzzled to find there was no marks on her forehead at all, yet the blood still stained her fingertips proving she couldn't be making this up.  
  
Fear and anger rose in her mind, dark and sharp, as she cursed Shiva under her breath. She couldn't let the others see her in this state of confusion, she wouldn't let them see her weakened, not after all they had been through.  
  
'What's happening to me?' she thought wildly, the pain in her forehead coming to an agonising crescendo before fading away.  
  
'Interdimensional linkage.' A voice whispered in her mind.  
  
Paine leant her forehead against the glass closing her eyes. 'I think the Den of Woe has driven me insane at last.' She thought to herself.  
  
'No my child you are very sane.' The voice said softly yet seemed to reverberate.  
  
'Then who are you? Why are you inside my head?' Paine asked her lips moving slightly trying to keep a sense of normality by voicing the words.  
  
'In your language my name is Death, one of the Four High Ones.' The voices answered.  
  
'Death like with the bones and scythe?' Paine asked sarcastically.  
  
'That's just your limited human metaphorical representation of how you sense me. I have no true form, yet I exist in all mortal beings. I am the flow of life, the clock that counts the seconds of mortal existence.' Death replied.  
  
'So I'm dying is that it?' Paine asked hollowly.  
  
'Everyone is dying, that's what to live means. I'm afraid my colleague seems to be losing their grip. You shouldn't be able to sense what you're sensing.' Death told her their voice ringing inside her head, never heard by her ears.  
  
'Colleague? Can't you give me a straight answer? Stop the riddles.' Paine demanded her eyes still screwed shut.  
  
'Why should I tell you? I am not at the whim to a mere human.' Death retorted imperiously.  
  
Paine was aware of another voice in the back of her mind, a series of memories unlocked. Information she had never known becoming available to her.  
  
'But you are at the mercy of balance, if I were to die right now then your colleague's influence would be unravelled.' Paine threatened in a voice not her own.  
  
'Fate warned you! Now leave her mind!' Death growled.  
  
'Fate?' Paine murmured softly.  
  
'My colleague. The one who brought you here, though it seems they did not complete the separation and the link is growing again.' Death replied reluctantly.  
  
'Brought me here? What are you talking about? This link... is that where that voice just came from?' Paine asked confused further.  
  
'You are not originally from Spira. Fate transported you here from another world.' Death answered.  
  
'So I'm just a tool to be used by you?' Paine snapped angrily.  
  
'Not me, Fate. Someone was needed here at this time and it was just coincidence that it was you. It could have easily been your brother.' Death accidentally told her, an imminent force showing signs of the humanity to which they were inextricably tied.  
  
'My brother? Is he the one who I see in my dreams? The one with whom this "link" is growing?' Paine demanded opening her eyes.  
  
There was an awkward silence in her mind before Death finally replied. 'Yes.' They said simply a tinge of embarrassment to their tone, which Paine found amusing.  
  
'And does he know about me?' she asked pressing the advantage she had come to have over Death.  
  
'It is because of him that you see him now. His dreams of you forced Fate to explain to him the truth. Little did Fate realise that his influence over Shiva would cause her reflection to open you up to the reality of his existence.' Death said hoping to confuse her.  
  
'Wait... so Shiva exists in his world too? So why would Fate tell him everything if Fate is all-powerful and he's just human? Why are you talking to me for that matter?' Paine asked, no longer affected by the haze of the dream and her full concentration had returned.  
  
'Shiva is a servant of Fate. She will exist wherever they decide she should be. As for him, Fate explained all as a kind of reward I suppose. Your brother was the point on which the fate of the world balanced and he was able to tilt it to Fate's and our advantage. Which is why I'm talking to you since what is good for Fate is good for me. You must survive to save Spira, we cannot let this world be given over to the Other after all we have done.' Death explained, ambiguous as ever.  
  
'I see and when Spira is saved then what? Will I go back? Will I be able to meet my brother?' Paine asked.  
  
'When Spira is saved you will carry on your life here however you wish, but you can never go back. Fate told your brother all this too but it seems his stubbornness will not let you go.' Death replied their voice becoming soft once more.  
  
'Then I will not let him go neither.' Paine retorted.  
  
'You have no choice! What has been done cannot be undone! If you stop this foolishness then I may grant you both your wish when the time comes.' Death snapped.  
  
'And I'm to take your word for it?' Paine said angrily clenching her fist.  
  
'You do not trust me? No I guess you wouldn't, your brother doesn't trust in Fate.' Death said softly.  
  
'You're hiding something from me. You can't even mention my brother's name, what do you fear of him?' Paine retorted grinning maliciously.  
  
'I fear nothing!' Death roared imperiously. 'Why should I lower myself to human standards and equal myself with one?'  
  
'Because regardless what you say it is we who win your battles!' Paine yelled.  
  
Paine felt Death's presence in her mind slip away defeated, and wondered what price she'd pay for pissing off a supposedly supreme being. Whatever it was, she reckoned it was worth it.  
  
She had a brother out there somewhere, one that knew of her and was desperate to meet her. She wondered what was happening to him. What had happened to him at the end of her dream. But most of all she wondered what his name was.  
  
She closed her eyes her cheek pressed to the cold glass once more as she sought a connection to that place again. The place where he hid in her mind, locked away from her subconscious. Then slowly a name bubbled up from deep inside, winding its way to the surface and onto her lips.  
  
'Squall.' She whispered softly to her own ears. 


	4. Connection

Connection  
  
It was there in the background, that incessant sound reminding him of what was being lost, being drained away with every little tick. The dream still visited him at night rarely changing. He wished he could alter it so that he could see what was happening to her now. Something was happening though, he felt like he could sense her thoughts, feel her memories lurking deep within his own. It had all started when a pain in his shoulder flared up, the scar where Edea had impaled him with a spear of ice began burning, contorting his face in pain as he closed his eyes to block it all out. And there she was, laying on a bed bathed in sunlight seemingly at peace. He called out to her and was surprised as she turned in reply.  
  
She touched her forehead, running her fingers along it in the same way as his scar ran across his face, then he watched her amazement as blood stained her fingers and she stood up pressing herself against the window and began talking to herself. Well it seemed like she was talking to herself but he could hear two voices, her soft sultry tones interwoven with a reverberating monotone. She was arguing with it and he felt his thoughts being pulled by hers enabling him to break through and snap back at this voice in her defence.  
  
The voice's reply forced him out of her and the scene dimmed, Paine fading away as the power in the words propelled him back into his own head and into his own reality. Squall opened his eyes and wondered to whom the voice had belonged. He assumed it was one of the Four High Ones but why would Fate be talking to Paine if she wasn't to know of him?  
  
The sound of the clock was there again in the background although the swing of the pendulum and the tick of the hands were booming in his ears as if amplified.  
  
'What the hell has happened to me now?' he thought angrily and noticed flecks of light flickering in the air before him as the sounds continued to rise in volume making him clamp his hands over his ears in a vain attempt to drown it out.  
  
The flecks of light swirled before him, condensing into a human form, the sounds hammering at his ear drums fading as they became a she, swathed in a red silk robe that clung tightly to her body, small pinpricks of light randomly appearing upon it. Her hair was long and black, specks of light fading away as it cascaded down her back and framed her pale face.  
  
'Who are you? A guardian?' Squall asked not particularly overwhelmed by this abrupt appearance, as he was the sound that preceded it.  
  
'In a sense I suppose I am but not in the way you mean.' The figure told him.  
  
'You're one of the High Ones?' Squall said exasperated, his hands moving slowly from his ears as the painful noise ceased and only her soft voice remained.  
  
'Yes I'm Time.' She replied and extended a slender hand to him.  
  
'Why are you here?' Squall asked tenderly taking her hand after a moments confused glance and shaking it so not to offend.  
  
'I was hoping to talk to the one that seems so bent on forcing Fate to fold.' Time replied smiling.  
  
'I just want to see my sister.' Squall mumbled in reply.  
  
'You seem unfazed by me.' Time said tilting her head to one side slightly.  
  
'Well you chose to be informal. I've seen plenty of beings materialise before my eyes, what's one more?' Squall replied bluntly.  
  
'Even if that being is one of the four supreme beings of the multi-verse?' Time asked elegantly pulling the chair from under his desk and sitting down on it.  
  
'Sure why not? You're the second one I've encountered now.' Squall replied seemingly at ease.  
  
'Third actually. The one who forced you out of Paine's mind was Death.' Time corrected him, her deep black eyes staring at him intently.  
  
'Whatever... so why are you here in corporeal form? Fate and Death didn't feel I was worth the effort.' Squall retorted.  
  
'I'm afraid my brethren feel above corporeality. However I am all things material so this comes naturally to me.' Time told him smiling faintly.  
  
Squall sat back on his bed. 'So now you're here to do what exactly? I doubt I can take much more attention.' He said to her glancing from her eyes before they sucked them in to their infinite deepness.  
  
'I'm hoping to correct all this. Fate seems to be unconcerned in all this but the Other may use this to his advantage.' Time explained her fingers gently tapping a vague rhythm on the leg of the chair.  
  
'Correct as in prevent me from meeting Paine? She was taken from me will you correct that?' Squall snapped angrily, annoyed by this act of false sympathy.  
  
'I can't undo what has been do, we can only change what will be.' Time sighed. 'If you continue on this path the effect could be disastrous, especially if the Other becomes involved. The link you are making with Paine now is open to his influence. Already they are making the effects of your lives cross over.' She told him.  
  
'You mean the blood on her fingers?' Squall asked.  
  
'That and the pain in your shoulder.' Time replied leaning back in the chair. 'It will be best for both of you if your minds were closed off to each other before they become meshed together and you lose your connection with reality.'  
  
'I don't believe you. Okay I felt myself inside her mind but I was in control, there was no sense of me being pulled into her. If that is the only way I can communicate with her then I'll take it regardless of the consequences.' Squall told her glaring into her eyes indignantly.  
  
The specks of lights on Time's robe blinked furiously as she snapped back. 'Your stubbornness and selfishness are blinding you to reason! Just because this world seems safe now does not make you indispensable! We still require your services.'  
  
'And what if I decline? Haven't I suffered enough at your hands? What about the countless other people who have been separated, suffered loss and tragedy just to be pawns in your games!' Squall snarled standing up.  
  
'These are not games we play!' Time retorted.  
  
'Really? You make all the rules, all the choices and moves. We are just the pieces! You have no-one to answer to to make your actions accountable!' Squall ranted.  
  
'You cannot understand the forces at work, the dimensions that have been lost when we fail.' Time answered calmly.  
  
'You're the ones who run everything, the supposed creators of all that is. How can you possibly fail unless you choose to?' Squall retorted.  
  
Time was left speechless, unable to explain why things were the way they were, that they were just as bound by the rules.  
  
'No answer huh? Well if you won't help me see Paine then just leave me be!' Squall told her.  
  
'If you really cared about her you wouldn't be so hell bent on destroying her.' Time said softly.  
  
'And how do I know you're not just saying that to dissuade me?' Squall retorted.  
  
'It is not my intention to deceive, only to make you see what is best for all of us and I don't mean just us High Ones.' Time answered looking into his eyes so full of mistrust.  
  
'All you have to do is one thing and then it will all end.' Squall said to her watching her full red lips rather than those blank eyes.  
  
Time sighed. 'And what is it you demand?' she asked.  
  
'I just want to meet her once, she knows about me now so why can't any of you arrange for us to meet, to talk and then move on safe in the knowledge that we've met and we're both doing fine.' Squall suggested.  
  
'Why should we?' Time said simply knowing she couldn't really promise him anything.  
  
'Then maybe I'll wait for the Other and see if they will do it for me.' Squall snapped in retaliation.  
  
Time flinched in shock. 'You wouldn't dare!' she stammered.  
  
'Try me.' Squall told her giving her a piercing stare.  
  
'Fine, I must consult with Fate and Death but you have no realisation of what you are dealing with in the Other.' Time said gloomily and faded away leaving Squall with that soft tick of the clock once more. 


	5. Foursome

Foursome  
  
It was a metaphorical construct, a glass cube floating endlessly in space surrounded by the specks of light that were stars. It didn't really exist in any dimension but the fact that it could possibly be, made it reality here and now, wherever and whenever that was.  
  
Time materialised into the cube, the glass sides clouding and the cube became a room, a square antique wooden table placed in the middle, its mahogany surface covered with a cloth covered in coloured swirls that moved aimlessly over it.  
  
The walls were pale beige, plain and uninteresting, the room lit from within as there were no windows or light fixtures present. A tall grandfather clock stood at one side, a scythe hung up on the opposite wall its wooden handle dark and curved while the crescent blade shone an eerie blue. On the wall behind her was a pair of tilted scales whilst in front of her was the picture of a winding river.  
  
Four chairs were placed around the table, one for each side. She wondered if they would come, surely they could sense the turbulence that Squall's mind was causing right now?  
  
She sat in her chair and waited for a brief moment as two figures materialised in their respective chairs. Fate took the form of a man in his thirties, with short wavy blond hair, his eyeballs blue/green in colour, like balls of water, with no iris or pupil. He had a chiselled handsome face and wore a loose dark blue robe, the sleeves draping and flared. Death appeared opposite him, a thin, sallow young man, his hair long pitch black and shiny. His eyeballs were the red and orange of flame while his robe was a dark swirling black with shades of violet.  
  
'Well?' Fate asked when they were finally corporeal.  
  
'We're having trouble with this Squall-Paine situation.' Death told him.  
  
'What trouble?' Fate said oblivious.  
  
'They both stubbornly refuse to let go of each other!' Time told him.  
  
'So?' Fate said nonchalantly.  
  
'Well it could be disastrous for both of them if it continues or is this some plan of yours?' Death asked tilting his head and giving Fate a long stare.  
  
'If this was planned why would I have forbidden it?' Fate retorted.  
  
'Because you didn't really, did you? You told Squall everything and made him even more curious.' A soft cheerful voice came from one of the wall of the room and another figure materialised.  
  
'What are you doing here?' Death snarled as a youth in his late teens appeared at the empty seat, his hair a mop of copper, tufts of hair hanging over his face, covering one of his pure emerald eyes. He wore a white shirt with white denim jeans, patches of black marring their pristine condition, contrasting with his tanned skin.  
  
'Hey now... I am invited to these little gatherings of yours remember? There are Four of us.' He said smoothly taking his place.  
  
'Damn you Injustice!' Death growled glowering at him.  
  
'Hey don't get angry at me! You all treat me like I'm evil... I didn't ask to be this way.' Injustice retorted.  
  
'Enough!' Time snapped, ever the older sister.  
  
Injustice gave her a wry grin whilst Death silenced himself reluctantly.  
  
'So is what Injustice said true? You actually plan to let them connect?' Time asked in disbelief.  
  
'Sounds good to me.' Injustice muttered causing Death to shoot him a look.  
  
'You'd really believe him?' Fate replied making a theatrical gesture at Injustice.  
  
'Well it's not like you always honest with us.' Time said softly.  
  
'Yeah we know what a twisted bastard you are.' Injustice interjected grinning.  
  
Fate laughed him off. 'You think I'll give something your way?' he retorted.  
  
'Soon enough Squall will come to me.' Injustice said softly cracking his fingers in an unnerving way.  
  
'You wish.' Death muttered although the look on Time's face was disconcerting.  
  
'You really believe that? Since when did you ever win?' Fate smirked.  
  
'Sephiroth.' Injustice said simply.  
  
'Just once out of ten possible chances and even then Sephiroth was defeated.' Death remarked.  
  
'Defeated yes, destroyed no.' Injustice said mischievously.  
  
'And what's that supposed to mean?' Time asked.  
  
'Did I say it meant anything?' Injustice snapped back sarcastically. 'Besides what's all this talk of winning about? I know for a fact I never win that's my role, my influence is in control.' He said to Fate.  
  
'Enough squabbling. We need to fix this problem.' Time snapped.  
  
'Isn't a problem from my point of view' Injustice replied leaning back in his chair.  
  
'Nothing ever is for you.' Death retorted bitterly.  
  
'Leave them to it, they won't be able to meet and when they see how futile it is they will give up.' Fate answered grandly.  
  
'I doubt it, Squall is demanding we arrange for them to meet once and then he'll let it rest.' Time said reluctantly, not wanting Injustice to know.  
  
Injustice gave a bemused grin to this, noticing her discomfort.  
  
'We don't work like that!' Death raged, his eyes blazing hotly.  
  
Injustice was aware of Fate's gaze on him, he was wondering what his elder brother was up, why he was letting this continue. What game was he playing now?  
  
'Well I guess if you're not going to help him then I will wait and see what Squally does next.' Injustice told them grinning and faded away.  
  
Fate smiled faintly unnoticed by the others but paid attention to their voices of outrage.  
  
'See! Now he will get the upper hand! Are you insane Fate?' Death snarled.  
  
'You knew that Squall threatened to accept any offer from Injustice if we didn't let him see Paine?' Time asked turning her deep black eyes on Fate for an intensive stare.  
  
'No I'm not insane Death, so you think I could be inflicted with such a mortal problem?' Fate told Death with an extravagant hand gesture.  
  
'You're letting Injustice run free with this! He could turn Squall against us! Do you want to unbalance the multi-verse?' Death retorted slamming a thin hand on the table.  
  
'Or is this what you want? Is this some twisted game you want to play?' Time muttered.  
  
'You have no understanding. If I were to continually win then the multi- verse would be unbalanced!' Fate snapped finally becoming agitated.  
  
'You mean you want Squall to turn?' Time gasped in horror.  
  
'Injustice will never let us hear the end of this.' Death moaned.  
  
'Who said Squall will definitely turn? This will test him and see if he will be able to face later trials. If Injustice can turn him then it will have to be arranged for someone else to take his place.' Fate said coldly.  
  
'How can you be so callous?' Time asked disdainfully.  
  
'It was the way I made, I am not as entangled in mortal ways as the pair of you that's why I am not emotionally attached as you.' Fate replied and faded away.  
  
'Bastard!' Time snarled to his retreating essence, although what he said was true, she and Death were tied to the mortals more closely but that didn't mean he had the right to use them as pawns. It seemed like Squall understood exactly what Fate was like.  
  
'Now what do we do?' Death whined. 


	6. One Winged Angel

One Winged Angel  
  
His essence flowed through the dimensions, searching, seeking. He was here somewhere, the puppet soul he owned. He never gave up such a valuable piece, he'd never sink to Fate's view of how disposable the mortals were. This one was his pride and joy, the influences he had to pull to create this tangled soul so full of power and loathing. This torn soul was lost from it's own dimension when Fate's champion cleaved it from it's anchor but he kept it here for when it'd be needed again, the ultimate antagonist. Injustice wasn't sure what Fate was expecting him to do, that smug blue- eyed git seemed to be forcing him to tempt Squall.  
  
Well feck that, Injustice wasn't going to be used to Fate's end. He'd do things a different way, which was where He would be perfect. Injustice grinned as he came across the aquamarine orb that shimmered with white streaks, containing his most precious possession.  
  
Squall was pacing his room, it had been a few days since Time had disappeared and he hadn't heard from any of the High Ones at all. He was half expecting a visit from Death or the Other but no strange voices had echoed in his mind. He still dreamt of Paine but it was the generic dream from before, he could no longer see what she was doing, no longer fell her mind in his own. He knew Rinoa and the others were becoming concerned with his change in behaviour, the way he looked into far corners of rooms as if expecting things to appear and how he'd become distanced when with them, even more so than he had been before the Sorceress Incident.  
  
He pulled on his jacket and picked up his gun-blade Lionheart, deciding he'd better get out in the fresh air, tackle some monsters to take his mind off of things.  
  
He couldn't concentrate, he Grat had caught him across the side of his torso, it's leafy tendril tearing his T-shirt and slashing the skin beneath, red blood oozing slowly from the thin gash. The pain gave him some focus enabling him to slash back in retaliation, his blade tearing through the woody flesh of the Grat, killing it instantly. He couldn't be bothered to train anymore, he didn't want to risk encountering a T-rexaur in his unfocused state and his wound was starting to sting.  
  
A figure materialised before him, a swirl of black material and sparkles of metal covered with a cascade of silver hair. The man looked up at him puzzled, slightly confused but then became focused, a determined grin crossing his face as he stood up.  
  
Squall looked up into the taller man's iridescent blue eyes and noticed the outlandish clothes he wore, a long flowing coat with the shoulders covered with metal plates, under the coat he wore black trousers and boots, whilst his bare chest was criss-crossed with two straps of leather. All these details paled in significance however when the longest sword Squall had ever seen appeared in this figures gloved hand.  
  
'Who are you?' Squall asked, raising Lionheart protectively.  
  
'Death.' The figure grinned bringing his weapon up by his head in both hands.  
  
Squall ducked and rolled as the blade swished down faster than he had expected. Fear brought his every thought into focus as he tried to survive this long blade that prevented him from approaching his attacker. He was confused as to why one of the High Ones would try and dispose of him in person, did he piss Fate off that much?  
  
The figure grinned his long silver hair swaying behind his back as he swung the ethereal blade once more as Squall tried to leap back. In his determination to avoid the blade, Squall brought Lionheart in an attempt to deflect the blow and was amazed as Lionheart sheared through it, severing the blade in half, the curved fragment flying away and embedding in a nearby tree.  
  
The figure gazed at his broken sword. 'So you fail me again.' He muttered to it but kept his eerie eyes on Squall.  
  
Squall kept back from the figure unsure what was to come next. 'Why are you trying to kill me?' he asked breathing heavily, the pain in his side screaming at him.  
  
'Because it's my duty.' The figure replied, swishing the remains of his sword aggressively.  
  
'I thought you High Ones couldn't interfere directly?' Squall retorted.  
  
'I am not a High One, though I aspired to be close to one. I was merely being dramatic when I said I was Death.' The figure replied in a deep low voice.  
  
'Then who are you?' Squall demanded, aware of how out of his control the situation was as this dark angel stood calmly before him.  
  
'My name is Sephiroth, your knowing it is trivial as soon you will be dead.' Sephiroth told him coolly.  
  
Squall looked around frantically searching for some way to gain advantage over this foe. In a blind panic he summoned Shiva. Sephiroth was encased in ice as Shiva materialised, the crystals shattering as the magic effect faded away, slivers of ice slid down his clothes while rivulets of water ran down his face as his frozen features thawed and broke into a grim smile.  
  
'Not bad, so you have summons here.' He said softly and shook his frozen hair bringing his broken sword up once more lunging at Squall as he reappeared.  
  
Squall blocked the thrust wildly, still disoriented as he returned from the summoning. Sephiroth slashed at him catching his side so that now both were bleeding and soaking his white t-shirt red. Squall winced in pain, breathing sharply, his mind whirring frantically as he sought a way out. He fired Lionheart, the bullets ricocheted of the blade onto Sephiroth's hands making him drop the sword, blood dripping from his torn gloves.  
  
Sephiroth growled and clenched his fists, blood bubbling from between his fingers. Fear and elation drove Squall on as he pushed forward, bringing Lionheart round in a swift arc, tearing Sephiroth's coat. He stepped back twisting his hands to bring Lionheart back round in another slash only to be hit in the face by Sephiroth's bloody fist, bright purple spots flashing in his vision as Lionheart slipped, cutting into Sephiroth's leg.  
  
Sephiroth grit his teeth as flesh was cleaved from his leg, the pain intermixed by surprise. He had been beaten by that puppet Cloud in his own dimension, he would not be killed by some mortal on this strange planet as well. He pulled his leg back, blood spurting and tricking down from the gash that went all the way to the bone.  
  
Squall still reeling from the punch, swayed back, Lionheart flailing before him to be caught in Sephiroth's hands. Squall pulled watching the blade slide from between his slippery hands, scarlet blood smearing the blue blade.  
  
'Give up, you can't go on and I don't want to kill you.' Squall said leaping away from Sephiroth's grasp.  
  
'Fool, I don't need your mercy, besides who said I'm finished?' Sephiroth replied grinning as his right shoulder plates bulged and buckled with an ominous creaking, his coat tore apart as a white, feathered wing appeared from behind his right shoulder.  
  
'What the...?' Squall gasped in shock and horror as he watched Sephiroth's wounds heal.  
  
'I told you I aspired to be close to the High Ones. I still have the power I gained from before my soul was shorn from its body.' Sephiroth said menacingly, flexing his bare arms.  
  
Squall's mouth gaped as he was lost for words and thoughts, having to rely on his instincts, which didn't want to be in a shattered body, to avoid the blow of Sephiroth's fists as they came hurtling towards him.  
  
Lionheart's blade was buckled under Sephiroth's fists as this one winged demon pushed him back relentlessly forcing his back against the metal wall of the training centre.  
  
All Squall could think of was his regrets of not being able to meet Paine as Lionheart was shattered in his hands and Sephiroth's grin widened as he drew his arm back for the final blow. 


	7. Thoughtless

Thoughtless  
  
The pain was excruciating, the fear froze her to the bed, unable to move, her eyes opening and darting around the room in search of this dark presence that enveloped her.  
  
Her sides ached, breathing becoming so painful she wanted to stop and just die. She couldn't understand why she felt this way, her sleep had been dreamless, peaceful, and now it was cacophony.  
  
The only thing she could think of was that something was happening to Squall. She felt like he was dying or possibly even dead already which was why it felt like something was being torn from her, shrivelling up and decaying inside.  
  
She wanted to curl up in a ball, to force out the pain and lose herself in her own little world. She knew Rikku and Yuna were asleep in the same room and tried to keep down her soft whimpers of agony so they wouldn't wake and see this state she was in.  
  
She closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep to ignore the pain and a flash of white appeared behind her eyelids. She found herself looking up into the chiselled features of an angel, a feathery white wing ruffling behind his shoulders as his blue eyes smouldered and his fist bore down on her.  
  
On instinct, subconscious cutting through pain, she raised her arm and caught the blow, gripping his arm in her hand she twisted, bending it back so far bones snapped and erupted from under flesh, sharp white points hung with bloodied skin.  
  
The angel grimaced, more in surprise than pain as she kicked out at the inside of his legs, forcing his knees to buckle out and he fell, his eyes glowering briefly as flowing silver hair covered his face.  
  
She watched her fist smash into his face but it wasn't her own. It was larger, more masculine, the arm covered in black leather. She realised it was Squall's arm, somehow she had taken control of his body, helping him in this time of need. The silver haired man fell back, face bloodied, limbs broken and bent oddly.  
  
Her sides ached with every breath she took but it was starting to fade as was the vision before her until all there was, was the darkness behind her eyelids and the feeling of calm within her as he breaths became normal, no longer belaboured with pain. But now her mind was filled with worry as she had left Squall and she knew not what danger he was still in.  
  
Squall looked down at his fist in awe, surprise and confusion as it had moved of its own accord. Sephiroth lay before him incapacitated when only moments before he was about to finish him off.  
  
He had relied too much on his gun-blade to be able to fight like that with his fists on instinct and when he had attacked Sephiroth it was like he had been watching it from outside himself, as if floating inside his mind detached from it all. He had been under someone else's control, could it have been Paine? The feeling within his body had been so warm and familiar but now it was gone he just felt cold.  
  
He turned on Sephiroth angrily, holding a fragment of his broken blade up to his throat as he tried to drag himself away.  
  
'Now tell me who sent you.' Squall demanded.  
  
'You will know soon enough.' Sephiroth spat and faded away leaving only the indentations of his body and bloodstains on the ground to show he had been present.  
  
'I can't take much more of this!' Squall muttered to himself and fell back exhausted, wishing the warmth would come back.  
  
Her heart pounded as she sat up in the dark, the soft sounds of breathing audible in the background. The feeling of decay within her had gone, replaced with a bloom of warmth, soothing her anxious mind. She couldn't understand what was going on, why she let this get through the barrier of her emotions but then this blood tie was stronger than any mere device she had created to protect her emotions.  
  
She needed her brother, as much as she would deny her need for someone else to the others she couldn't deny it in herself. She could flit from her mind to his, even though he didn't exist on this world, she no longer felt herself as an individual but rather as a halve to a whole. She wasn't sure why that figure had been trying to kill Squall, whether it was part of his duty on his world like she had on hers, or it was part of some greater plot.  
  
She lay back on her bed, her hair ruffled and sticking up out of place as it was drenched in sweat, her eyes closed as she tried to sleep, no longer sensing the alarm she felt before, she assumed that Squall was now safe, this feeling of peace allowing her to be lulled back to sleep.  
  
These events did not go unnoticed, for things to exist there has to be a witness or who can say what is reality. One of these witnesses had watched passively as Sephiroth fought Squall, as Paine took over and retaliated, and now as they both slept she still watched.  
  
Unfortunately she had no power to do anything about this, bound as she was by the High Ones laws but she knew just who was behind all this, for she had met Sephiroth before and knew who's influence he was under.  
  
Her own Lord would have to be told and so she detached herself from her own dimension letting herself float freely in space like an icy comet until she came to the Junction. What she was about to attempt was risky and could entail the loss of her existence if she got it wrong but she had to do this for Squall, it was her desire to protect him and now the a High One was against him and she couldn't help him alone.  
  
Shiva came to the green swirl that was the Junction, the hole in dimensions that led to the High Ones domain. Breathing deeply she stepped in and found herself pulled through, visions of her existence and blinding lights flashing before her eyes as the swirling matter around her changed hues.  
  
Then she arrived, her form changed from that of the pale blue Ice Queen to that of a true human, her body became flesh coloured, but her hair remained dark blue. Her body shivered as she was fully bared to the cold. There was a flicker and she was then clothed in a shimmering blue dress. The darkness around her shimmered and a figure appeared before her, a male human dressed in a black suit, his long dark hair cascading down his back and strands ran down the sides of his face, obscuring his eyes.  
  
'Why are you here?' the figure asked.  
  
'I must see Fate.' Shiva said simply remaining subservient.  
  
'For what reason? You cannot be here to change your destiny, for you of all entities know that cannot be done.' The figure said dryly.  
  
'I have information concerning two of his champions.' Shiva replied steadfastly staring ahead, not at the figure as he paced around her.  
  
'And what makes you think Fate is not aware already?' the figure demanded.  
  
'It may have been obscured from him by another High One.' Shiva replied simply trying not to flinch as the figure drew closer.  
  
'That is a serious allegation, where is your proof?' the figure demanded.  
  
'Sephiroth was released that's my proof.' Shiva snapped, her patience melting.  
  
'Sephiroth?' the figure gasped.  
  
'Yes.' Shiva said biting back the sarcasm.  
  
'I see. You may enter.' The figure replied.  
  
'About time' Shiva muttered.  
  
'Hold your tongue Esper... show some respect.' The figure growled.  
  
'Why? You're just a puppet too.' Shiva retorted heading towards a portal opened by the figure.  
  
'There is still a hierarchy. I, Cle, one of the eight Immortals, surpasses an Esper like you.' Cle said imperiously.  
  
'Whatever.' Shiva muttered and entered the portal leaving the grim form of Cle behind and headed to Fate. 


	8. Judgement

Judgement  
  
Shiva arrived in a grassy field, still in the human contemporary form she had been given in the Junction. Before her a murky river meandered along the field in its muddy banks. On one of these banks sat a blond man in a blue robe with his back to her.  
  
'Why are you here?' the figure asked.  
  
'Sephiroth was sent against Squall my Lord.' Shiva replied, crouching down on one knee.  
  
'I see. And how is he now?' Fate asked.  
  
'Weakened, Sephiroth had the better of him until Paine took control of his body.' Shiva told him.  
  
Fate sat in silence still not facing her. 'So Sephiroth was defeated?' he said his faint grin hidden from her.  
  
'Yes my Lord. Why would the Other send him though?' she inquired.  
  
'That is none of your concern Shiva. I know of your love for the human Squall, that is why I have allowed you to continue your current role. Other Espers have faded away, some have come back but you and some others are my constant guardians. Don't push your luck.' Fate warned her.  
  
'Yes my Lord.' Shiva replied demurely, bowing.  
  
'I commend you on your devotion but if the Other mobilised Sephiroth then he may send more, you should return to Squall and inform me of any such developments as they arise.' Fate told her.  
  
'As you wish.' Shiva replied and stood up.  
  
'And another thing, try not to antagonise Cle too much.' Fate said wryly as she left his realm and returned to the Junction.  
  
'You can come out now.' Fate said to a hidden figure once Shiva had left.  
  
A woman dressed in a black tight fitting dress over which she wore a blood red short-sleeved jacket appeared from the shadows.  
  
'Injustice is not behaving as you expected.' She muttered as she approached.  
  
'On the contrary, I was expecting him to try and assassinate Squall rather than tempt him otherwise I wouldn't have summoned you.' Fate grinned.  
  
'I have no role here, the Ice Queen already told you Sephiroth was defeated.' The woman replied her green eyes flashing.  
  
'Defeated but not destroyed, the One Winged Angel is the Immortal of Darkness. He can arise again.' Fate replied standing up.  
  
'So I have to baby sit this human now?' the woman groaned sarcastically.  
  
'My, my, so testy. This is unbecoming of the Pure Immortal.' Fate said condescendingly.  
  
'So would you be if you had a sword run through you. And enough of the Pure Immortal crap, my name is Aeris.' She snapped.  
  
'Fine, Aeris.' Fate sighed.  
  
Aeris shook her long brown hair, slightly pacified. 'So do I have to do this alone? What do I tell your hero?' she said witheringly.  
  
'Tell him the truth. I assume he will treat you with more respect than he did me.' Fate said softly.  
  
'Oh so he didn't quiver in fear at your voice? I like him already.' Aeris said grinning.  
  
'How did you ever become an Immortal?' Fate said wearily.  
  
'How should I know?' I was a mere Cetra until you or one of your siblings brought me here.' Aeris retorted.  
  
'We may regret that decision soon.' Fate warned her.  
  
'Sounds good to me. Do you think it's fun to be at your beck and call?' Aeris replied.  
  
'Just go!' Fate snapped.  
  
'Jeez! Fine I'll go look for this Squall.' Aeris replied and disappeared.  
  
'Just what are you up to Injustice?' Fate thought to himself, sitting once more on the banks and watched the water flow by.  
  
Aeris materialised in the Training Centre of Balamb Garden and noted the bloodstains left by Sephiroth but there was no sign of Squall.  
  
'Dammit! Where is he?' she muttered and headed out the door into the central hub of Garden.  
  
'Hey what is this place?' she wondered as people milled around her, numerous youths some in uniform others in casual clothes gave her brief smiles as they ambled by.  
  
'Some kind of school?' she mused as she headed towards the central pillar in hopes of finding some clues as to where this Squall could be.  
  
'Hey there sweetie.' A voice drawled behind her and she turned round into deep brown eyes shaded by the brim of a cowboy hat.  
  
'Are you talking to me?' Aeris said taken aback making the guy step back slightly.  
  
'Sure honey.' He replied smiling.  
  
'I'd prefer if you'd call me Aeris.' She replied giving him a steely gaze.  
  
'Sure, I'm Irvine.' He said gulping slightly and extended his hand to her.  
  
Aeris tentatively shook it.  
  
'So are you new here?' Irvine asked as she released his hand.  
  
'Yeah, I'm a bit lost.' Aeris admitted.  
  
'No problem I could show you around.' Irvine said politely.  
  
'Thanks but I'm looking for Squall Leonhart.' Aeris said, declining subtly, aware of what else Irvine had in mind.  
  
'The Commander? I can show you, he's a buddy of mine.' Irvine told her trying another of his dazzling smiles to impress her.  
  
'Okay then lead the way.' Aeris told him.  
  
Aeris followed Irvine as he led her to the dormitories, listening to his tales of heroism and the life of a SeeD, whatever that was, with only half an ear.  
  
'Well here we are.' Irvine said finally and knocked on Squall's door. He was dismayed that Aeris wasn't responding to his flirting the right way but maybe she had something on her mind.  
  
Squall opened his door, his face bruised and his t-shirt still torn and bloody. 'What's up Irvine?' he asked wearily.  
  
'Hey man, are you okay?' Irvine asked concerned.  
  
'I'm fine.' He replied and then noticed Aeris. 'Who's this?' he asked Irvine.  
  
'This is Aeris, new girl. She was looking for you so I brought her here.' Irvine explained quickly.  
  
'Why are you looking for me?' Squall asked warily.  
  
'I think it'd be best if we spoke privately.' Aeris said softly, imperceptibly nodding her head at Irvine.  
  
Irvine took the hint. 'Right I'll leave you to it, I have to go find Selph anyway.' He told them and walked off.  
  
'So why are you here?' Squall asked as he let her into his room.  
  
'Let's just say it's something to do with Paine.' Aeris said turning to face him.  
  
The door slammed shut as the handle slipped from his grasp and his face paled. 


	9. Purity

Purity  
  
'What about Paine?' Squall asked the brown haired woman before him.  
  
'It was she that saved you from Sephiroth.' Aeris replied sitting down on a chair.  
  
'Is she okay?' Squall asked aware of the dangers that their crossing over attracted.  
  
'She's fine, a little tired and worried but she's fine. It's you we're worried about.' Aeris replied giving a brief friendly smile.  
  
'What about me? Is Sephiroth going to come back?' He asked walking over to his bed and sitting down, wincing at the pain in his sides.  
  
'I don't know. I'm not sure what the Other will do next.' Aeris informed him, gazing at the livid red wounds with concern.  
  
'So it was the Other who sent him then? So who do you belong to?' Squall asked pulling off his jacket.  
  
'Yes they did. Sephiroth is an Immortal. I belong to me.' She replied shifting in her chair as Squall began pulling his t-shirt up exposing deep red lines scoring his sides.  
  
'An Immortal?' Squall asked breathing in sharply as his wounds began to ooze.  
  
'Let me get that.' Aeris said and got up quickly before he could reply and placed her hands on his sides, white light glowing between her fingers as the wounds faded away.  
  
Squall looked down on her in amazement. 'Just who are you?' he asked.  
  
'I'm Aeris, also an Immortal.' She replied moving back, her hands free of blood.  
  
'Okay... so both you and Sephiroth are these Immortals. So what the hell is an Immortal?' Squall asked calmly.  
  
Aeris sighed. 'We're underlings of the Four High Ones. There are a total of eight of us, two for each High One. Both Sephiroth and I were both mortals on another world where they played their games. Sephiroth was a villain I was a hero. After our deaths Sephiroth became the Immortal of Darkness for the Other and I became the Pure Immortal for Fate.' She told him in a singsong voice.  
  
Squall pulled off his bloodied top and started looking for a clean one. 'So basically you're like the GFs?' he replied muffled.  
  
'You could say that though we are higher in the scheme of things.' Aeris replied softly.  
  
The door opened and Rinoa came walking in, her eyes flashing with a number of emotions such as surprise, shock and finally anger as she noticed the strange girl in Squall's room while he was there with his top off.  
  
'What the hell is this?' she snapped, glaring at Aeris.  
  
'Rinoa it's not what you think.' Squall said softly whilst Aeris looked on bemused.  
  
'Is this why you haven't been seeing me much recently? You got some whore on the side?' Rinoa spat.  
  
'Hey!' Aeris interjected.  
  
'Don't you say a word to me!' Rinoa screamed at her and stormed out the room as Squall chased after her.  
  
The darkness swirled, the endless vacuum filled with speck of matter slowly congregating, building, burning. He sat and watched this creation, the interplay of forces and once again pondered on his existence. He wondered if his siblings thought of this or if they just took it for granted. They probably did, they were not like him, the black sheep of the family. He never asked to be the opposing force of the multiverse, the evil that lurked in everything. Mortals had it easy, at least they could explain their existence to themselves, but he was a supreme force the fourth being to come into existence but from where he had no clue.  
  
He had been surprised at Sephiroth's defeat, the Dark Immortal had been overwhelmed by Paine's spirit channelled through Squall. It seemed their combined energy would force him to ruin, was that what Fate had in mind? Was he insane? There had to be Injustice otherwise there would be nothing to compare good to. Now Sephiroth slumbered in his cocoon, it would be a while before his energy was regained.  
  
Meanwhile Injustice was aware that Purity was with Squall. He couldn't send anyone against Paine now, what he had already set in motion could not be disturbed. So he'd have to attack Squall again and hope Fate's little doll couldn't match it.  
  
'Rinoa! Come back!' Squall yelled as he ran after Rinoa retreating form aware he was topless.  
  
'Get lost!' she yelled back and quickened her pace back to her own dorm.  
  
Squall sped up and caught up with her, grabbing her arm.  
  
Rinoa spun round and slapped him across the face.' Get off me!' She screamed, struggling.  
  
'Will you at least listen to me?' Squall asked softly, relaxing his grip on her arm.  
  
'Why what excuse are you going to give? Maybe if I showed up a few minutes later I might have seen something you wouldn't be able to explain away!' she said bitterly.  
  
'Do you really have such a low opinion of me that you think I'd cheat on you?' Squall asked trying not to let the anger build up.  
  
'No... but...' Rinoa stammered.  
  
'But what? You walk into my room, accuse me of something of like this yet you wouldn't give me a chance to say a thing.' Squall said in a low voice looking into her eyes.  
  
'Well what else was I to think? You were topless!' Rinoa retorted.  
  
'It didn't occur to you I was only changing out of a dirty top?' Squall asked.  
  
'With some strange girl there?' Rinoa said.  
  
'Is it my fault Irvine brought her to me when I'd only just got back from the Training centre? I didn't want to keep a bloodstained, ripped top on. I was about to get a clean one on when you burst in!' Squall explained.  
  
'Right.' Rinoa murmured.  
  
'Fine, don't believe me then go ask Irvine!' Squall snapped and let her go walking off back to his room.  
  
'Squall!' Rinoa cried out surprised at his outburst, pained that she had hurt him, but he continued walking away ignoring her cries.  
  
Squall stormed into his room and slammed the door behind him.  
  
'Didn't go well then?' Aeris asked softly.  
  
Squall looked at her in surprise and then shook his head. 'No it didn't. I'm surprised you're still here.' He replied.  
  
'Well I'm here to stay for a while.' Aeris replied.  
  
'I see, well I'd better get you a room then.' Squall replied and walked over to a set of drawers pulling out a top and slipping it on, ruffling his brown hair.  
  
'I suppose it wouldn't be a good idea if I stayed with you.' Aeris murmured, memories of another couple she once knew playing in her mind.  
  
'Not if you want trouble, besides girls aren't allowed to share with guys. Garden's rules.' Squall replied running a hand through his hair to try and smooth it out.  
  
'Garden?' Aeris asked, perking up.  
  
'That's what this place is called.' Squall told her.  
  
'Oh right... so is this some kind of school?' Aeris asked.  
  
'You could say that. Though we train SeeDs rather than students.' Squall told her and started walking to his door.  
  
'SeeDs huh? Keeping with the Garden analogy? So what do SeeDs do?' Aeris asked, getting up off the chair.  
  
'We're mercenaries.' Squall said simply. 'We'd better go see Cid and sort you out a room.' He added opening the door.  
  
'My aren't the parallels mounting up.' Aeris thought to herself and followed Squall out the room. 


	10. Decay

Decay  
  
He hadn't been what she had expected. The Cid of this world was a shorter, slightly tubby man with a worried expression. The Cid she knew had been a brusque, foul mouthed, skinny engineer. She wondered how they all were back on the Planet. Her dearest friend had been taken from her, as had the new love she was working on, Cloud Strife.  
  
But that was all in the past now, she had no idea how long she had been in Fate's employ, her new wardrobe showing how she had severed herself from that past. No longer pink, now she wore black and showed more of her figure. Her supposed innocence from her previous life had made her this Immortal but now she knew more about the multiverse that innocence had been torn away.  
  
'Are you okay?' Squall asked as they walked to her new room.  
  
'Why do you ask?' Aeris replied, brought out of her thoughts.  
  
'Just that you seemed elsewhere.' Squall told her, turning the corner of the corridor.  
  
'Just thinking.' She replied following him to her new room and opened the door.  
  
'Not much is it?' she said as she looked into a room of bare walls, a single bed, a few closets and a desk with a chair.  
  
'Not really, we just tend to sleep in our rooms, we live elsewhere.' Squall replied as an explanation.  
  
'I see.' Aeris said simply as she stepped into the room.  
  
Squall coughed nervously. 'Well if you need anything you know where I am.' He told her.  
  
'What about food? I don't have any money to buy anything.' Aeris asked before her turned to leave.  
  
'I would've thought you wouldn't need to eat... anyway if you go to the cafeteria it's free.' Squall replied.  
  
'I'm in mortal form so I have all the needs you do.' Aeris said softly.  
  
Squall shivered slightly at her voice. 'I get it. Well if you'll excuse me.' He said and turned to leave.  
  
'Good luck with Rinoa.' Aeris called as he started closing the door behind him.  
  
Squall didn't reply and the door closed behind him leaving her in the spartan room.  
  
His mind was buzzing, some strange girl comes along saying she's from Fate and that he was in danger. Rinoa accused him of being unfaithful without giving him a chance. He wondered what the hell was going on in his life, but most of all he wondered what was happening in Paine's.  
  
A gaunt hand appeared from the shadow of a tall tree in the Training centre, nearby the carcass of a Grat was dissolving into a putrid mass, its slayer hopping triumphantly. It noticed the gaunt figure appear from nowhere, holding what seemed to be an ornate sword with no blade.  
  
'Hey who are you?' she asked the figure.  
  
'Mort.' He whispered dryly, his voice creaking.  
  
'Are you new here or something?' the SeeD asked cheerfully.  
  
'I'm looking for Aeris.' He replied, his thin sallow face turned to her, eyes like blue sparks under a mop of stringy ginger hair.  
  
'Sorry I don't know who that is... you could try looking them up in the directory.' She replied.  
  
'Right.' Mort whispered and stalked off, sheathing his broken sword, disappearing into the undergrowth.  
  
'Weird guy.' She murmured to herself and continued her training.  
  
Mort stalked the hallways of Garden unaware of the gazes he was drawing. His master had sent him to find Aeris, help her protect this Squall person that Fate had so much resting on. He was the Immortal of Decay, just what the hell could he do?  
  
Aeris wandered her room restless, she was aware of the presence of another Immortal. She was leery of who it could be, Fate hadn't said he would send any help but this aura wasn't dark, just slightly murky.  
  
Mort walked through the halls his pale complexion drawing glances, as did his dark cloak and clothes. For some reason he couldn't sense Aeris, she was being hidden, either by Fate or herself. He assumed that this was to prevent Injustice knowing she was here but it wasn't helping him any.  
  
This many people unnerved him, he wasn't used to so much life he preferred the silence of the corpses he tended. He wondered what his master had in mind for him, what he had to expect. Sephiroth was dormant now, which only left the other Immortal. But surely Injustice wouldn't deploy his remaining sentinel?  
  
Mort continued to stalk the pathway, too unsure to stop the teenagers that passed him by for help. Besides he figured that they wouldn't know of Aeris if they had just arrived, he would have to search for someone high up.  
  
'Excuse me who's in charge here?' he asked a young male as he ran past him.  
  
'Headmaster Cid or Commander Squall.' The young boy said running on the spot.  
  
'And where do I find them?' he asked in a whispery voice.  
  
'Um I dunno where Squall is but Headmaster Cid should be in his office on the third floor, just take the elevator.' He replied creeped out by those weird blue eyes.  
  
'Thanks.' Mort mumbled and strode off to the elevator column that dominated the centre of Garden.  
  
The middle aged man looked up at him with curiosity. 'Can I help?' Cid asked the strange young man that stood before him. 'Do you need to go to the Infirmary?' he added taking in his pale complexion and sickly features.  
  
'I'm looking for Aeris, I was told she was here.' Mort replied ignoring Cid's concerned comment.  
  
'I see and why do you want her?' Cid asked, sitting up, ready to press a buzzer on his desk to call any nearby SeeDs.  
  
'I was sent to help her.' Mort replied with a throaty wheezing.  
  
'And how do I know that I can trust you? I was told that there would be those sent to kill her.' Cid retorted evenly.  
  
'That is true, that is why I am here. How much do you know Sir?' Mort asked.  
  
'Only that she is in danger. Garden will not stand by and leave someone vulnerable.' Cid replied relaxing slightly.  
  
'Fine then what about Squall Leonhart?' Mort asked.  
  
'I have no idea where he is right now.' Cid replied.  
  
'You are wasting my time.' Mort growled.  
  
'I have my reasons. I do not know you, why should I turn Aeris over to you.' Cid said tensing for action.  
  
'I can't explain, you wouldn't understand.' Mort replied clenching his long fingers.  
  
'You never know he might.' A soft feminine voice said behind him.  
  
Mort spun his hands instinctively going to his sword. The figure that met his stare had long dark hair and amber eyes. She was eternally youthful but no longer wore the extravagant clothing the world had known her for.  
  
Mort gasped. 'Lady Edea, I had no idea you'd be here.' He stuttered.  
  
'Edea dear, what's going on?' Cid asked confused, getting up to walk over to his wife.  
  
'This gentleman is Mort, we can trust him.' Edea replied simply.  
  
'What aren't you telling me?' Cid asked.  
  
Mort gaped in disbelief. 'This is your husband?' he asked surprised.  
  
Edea nodded in reply.  
  
'So how do you know him?' Cid asked slightly amused at how Mort had changed.  
  
'From Ultimecia's memories. Mort here is an Immortal, a higher being.' Edea explained.  
  
'Okay well I guess if Edea says you're alright then I can tell you where Aeris is.' Cid said to Mort and told him Aeris' room number.  
  
Mort left the room nodding to them both. 'Lady Edea.' He said curtly and stalked out the door.  
  
'Lady Edea?' Cid asked with a smile.  
  
'They have a respect for sorceresses, especially those whose lives play an important part in the destiny of the world.' Edea replied sighing.  
  
'Okay dear.' Cid replied returning to his desk.  
  
'Who is Aeris?' Edea asked after a pause.  
  
'Some young lady who is in trouble.' Cid replied picking up his pen.  
  
'Something serious is going on.' Edea said seriously.  
  
Now it was Cid's turn to sigh. 'There always is.' He replied. 


	11. Turbulence

Turbulence  
  
He sat in the shadowy corner, waiting, patient. The anger was slowly ebbing away his mind was in turmoil. He was in danger, his girlfriend had practically accused him of seeing someone else, he had been visited by beings called Immortals, one tried to kill him the other was here to protect him. His life had never been simple but ever since he found out about the existence of his sister the complication had increased exponentially.  
  
He supposed he should go see Rinoa now that he was calmer but her temper was more volatile than his, he couldn't be sure if she was ready to talk yet. He had been scared by the way he had reacted to her remarks, how his temper had been flared so easily. He was changing he knew but was it because of Rinoa or the situation he was in now?  
  
He wasn't sure what was to come next, whether he'd be attacked or if he'd somehow connect with Paine again. He was annoyed at Fate, the person who was behind all of this. People created Gods or higher powers to give meaning to why things were the way they were, well he knew who exactly was to blame. Fate had took everything from him, his family, his life, just so he would be ready to be the hero in this cosmic game the High Ones played.  
  
Squall clenched his fist angrily, closing his eyes and breathing deeply, slowly trying his best to calm his seething head. He had left Aeris alone because he couldn't cope around her right now. He didn't blame her for Rinoa's reaction, he had kept all this Paine stuff secret from them all, but he was worried about how Aeris herself made him feel. It could have been the healing touch she gave him, or her voice, he didn't know, just being around her made him shiver in excitement.  
  
He hit the floor with his fist. 'I don't have time for this.' He muttered to himself.  
  
He would have to go see Aeris and show her around Garden, maybe get Zell to hang round with her so she wouldn't feel lonely and he wouldn't have to be around her on his own too much. He figured it'd be easier to get Irvine to agree to spend time with her but judging by Aeris' face when he had brought her to him she couldn't stomach his flirting. Beside he didn't want to cause any more trouble between Irvine and Selphie.  
  
He stood, back rubbing against the smooth wall, rumpling his t-shirt. His grey eyes opened, dazzled by the pale sunlight that seeped through the blinds on his windows. He pulled his jacket off his bed and slipped it on. He wasn't sure who to go look for first, Zell or Rinoa.  
  
Mort was still wandering the halls, Cid had given him the room number but hadn't specified where that was. Besides he was too preoccupied by the fact that Lady Edea was here. He had been unaware that a sorceress was here, especially one once tied to Ultimecia. It made him wonder if Aeris knew of this and whether the Other would come at Squall through Edea.  
  
He turned the corner and bumped into a short brunette girl dressed in a sunflower yellow dress.  
  
'Hey!' he said throatily.  
  
'Sorry!' she replied cheerfully. 'Hey you okay?' she asked.  
  
'Yes I'm fine, I usually look this pale.' Mort said sighing and rolled his blue eyes.  
  
'Okay, okay! So you new? I haven't seen you around before.' She replied unfazed.  
  
'You could say that. I'm looking for someone, they're in room 713.' Mort replied.  
  
'Oh I know where that is! Want me to show you the way? I'm Selphie?' she said in a rush.  
  
'Uh, yes, please. I am Mort.' He answered puzzled by the hyperactive young woman before him.  
  
'Mort huh? Never heard that name before.' Selphie said casually and turned round beckoning him to follow.  
  
'I guess you wouldn't.' Mort replied.  
  
'Not talkative much are you?' Selphie replied.  
  
Mort just gave a sickly grin in reply.  
  
'That's okay, Squall was like that, you get used to it.' She continued chatting on.  
  
'So she knows Squall?' Mort thought to himself.  
  
'So why is the sorceress Edea here? Wasn't she possessed by Ultimecia?' Mort said suddenly.  
  
'Who Matron? She's okay now, we beat Ultimecia out of her.' Selphie said looking over her shoulder and casting him a puzzled look.  
  
'I was just wondering. I met her in Cid's office.' Mort replied trying to waylay her suspicion.  
  
'I see. Anyway here is room 713. Hope who you're looking for is in!' Selphie said smiling and skipped off back down the hall the way they came.  
  
Mort knocked on the door and waited as it slowly opened. There was no one behind it so he carefully further and cautiously stepped into the room. However he wasn't cautious enough as a metal staff smashed him on the head.  
  
'Fuck!' he growled batting away the staff and clasping a hand to his damp hair.  
  
'Mort? What are you doing here?' Aeris asked appearing from around the door.  
  
'I was looking for you but now I'm getting my head bashed in!' he retorted sarcastically.  
  
'I'm sorry! I wasn't sure who you was I just sensed another Immortal and I figured it was best to be safe than sorry.' Aeris told him and pulled his hand from his head.  
  
'You'll be fine.' She told him. 'Stop being a child.' She scolded.  
  
'Wait a minute, you could sense me?' Mort asked, rubbing his damp hand on his leg.  
  
'Yeah, why?' Aeris replied stepping back and shutting the door.  
  
'I couldn't sense you, I had to wander round and ask people where you were to get here.' Mort replied walking into the middle of her room.  
  
'Really? Strange. So as I asked before, why are you here.' Aeris asked.  
  
'Death sent me as backup. It seems he's worried about the Other.' Mort replied sitting on her chair, his cloaking trailing down over the legs.  
  
'Fine but don't think you can stay here. There's barely any room as it is!' Aeris replied pushing his feet from off her bed.  
  
'So what am I to do? I'm stuck in corporeal form on this planet until it's sorted!' Mort answered back glaring at her.  
  
'Cid will sort you a room out if you ask nicely.' Aeris told him.  
  
'I've just come from there!' Mort whined. 'Oh yeah did you know Lady Edea is here?' he added.  
  
'So what she's no threat!' Aeris replied.  
  
'Well I didn't know that.' Mort replied sulkily.  
  
Aeris rolled her eyes. 'Look it doesn't matter but you'd better go get yourself a room. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Squall.' She told him.  
  
'He'll do as he's told.' Mort snapped.  
  
'Really? Well if he's supposed to obey us then why have the High Ones sent us to him?' Aeris retorted.  
  
Mort shrugged.  
  
'There you go then, now get on out of here before I brain you again!' Aeris told him with an evil grin.  
  
'Yes Ma'am.' Mort said sarcastically and got up, his cloak trailing like a black cloud around his body and he walked through the door.  
  
'You could at least remember to open it!' Aeris yelled after him through the door. 


	12. Denial

Denial  
  
He found the blond youth in the cafeteria, a plate of steaming hot dogs being devoured with much enthusiasm, tattooed jaw masticating furiously.  
  
'S'up?' Zell asked through a mouthful of chewed bread and meat. 'You're looking rough man.' He added as Squall sat by him.  
  
'Yeah well I've been having a few problems recently.' Squall told him.  
  
'So that's why you've been keeping yourself hidden!' Zell replied swallowing his latest mouthful.  
  
'So what have the others been saying about that?' Squall asked intrigued.  
  
Zell looked at him curiously. 'Hey man we just figured you were going back to your bad old ways!' he chuckled.  
  
'So you haven't been saying anything about me having a girl on the side?' Squall asked leaning forward.  
  
'No way! We know you're not like that. Why what happened?' Zell asked longingly looking at his remaining hot dogs.  
  
'Irvine brought some new girl to see me when I was changing from some training I'd done. Rinoa comes into my room and sees me topless with this girl and goes ballistic.' Squall said in a whisper.  
  
'Jeez man, not good. So where's Rin now?' Zell murmured.  
  
'Probably her room. I chased after her but I got a little wound up that she'd accuse me like that.' Squall said.  
  
'You? Wound up?' Zell said in surprise.  
  
'Yeah don't ask.' Squall retorted.  
  
'So why you here then?' Zell asked not trying to be rude but the smell of the hot dogs before him was making him salivate.  
  
'I need you to spend some time with the new girl.' Squall answered simply.  
  
'Okay... but why? We don't usually have a buddy system.' Zell asked perplexed.  
  
'It's complicated and it's not a good idea if I try to explain. Let's just say both her and I are targets.' Squall said in a low voice so they wouldn't be overheard.  
  
'Oh...' Zell mumbled realisation dawning.  
  
'So where she at?' he asked looking around.  
  
'Cid put her up in room 713. Her name's Aeris.' Squall replied.  
  
'Right well let me know when you want me to go meet her.' Zell told him and went to scoop up a hot dog.  
  
'Well I was hoping right now.' Squall told him watching his expression change.  
  
'Awww man, you serious? Do you know how long it took me to get these?' Zell said almost whining pointing to his hot dogs.  
  
Squall grinned. 'Fine you can finish them first but I think I'll back off a bit.' He told him.  
  
Zell gave him a look. 'What you trying to say?' he asked grabbing a hot dog.  
  
'That you're not the cleanest eater I know.' Squall replied laughing.  
  
'Hey!' Zell yelled in mild hurt and then bit into his hot dog. 'You're lucky I have a sense of humour!' he told him spraying breadcrumbs.  
  
'Just eat!' Squall told him. 'Not that you need telling.' He added grinning.  
  
Zell stuck his tongue out at him in reply.  
  
'Okay, that's just nasty. I said eat not show me what you're eating!' Squall snapped back in retort.  
  
Zell grinned and went back to chomping on his hot dogs.  
  
'Paine are you okay?' a concerned Yuna asked her stoic companion.  
  
'Why wouldn't I be?' Paine retorted denying the turmoil in her head.  
  
'Well you seem a little distracted. That Tonberry nearly got you.' Rikku replied chirpily.  
  
'It's nothing.' Paine replied waving them away.  
  
Yuna and Rikku gave her a look but didn't press it any further.  
  
Paine walked away from them, their happy voices drilling into her mind, interrupting her own thoughts. She was still worried by her vision the night before. The silver haired man that had attacked Squall was he dead now or was Squall still in trouble?  
  
She knew Squall was still alive, which was a good sign. She couldn't bear to have that dead feeling inside her again, but now it was her mind that was all confused. She couldn't concentrate totally on what was happening here on Spira with her brother seemingly in danger. If Yuna and Rikku were starting to notice then it must be really bad.  
  
She hadn't been visited by the High Ones yet, there was no message from anyone to tell her what was going on. She needed to know whether what happened to Squall was part of his destiny on his world or whether he had been targeted because of her.  
  
A vague memory not her own flitted across her thoughts, waving to get her attention. Her story wasn't over yet, the High Ones could not interfere with what they had set in motion on Spira. Only Squall was a target for anything that wanted to tear them apart.  
  
Paine's brow creased as she wondered where this thought had come from. She had wandered from the other two and found herself alone in the forest of Kilika. She tensed and raised her sword as she felt a presence.  
  
She spun round, blade extended and stopped it a hairs breadth from the face of a young woman. Her skin was a dark as night, her eyes were a deep violet that penetrated her own as she stood there unflinching, her wavy pure white hair rippling from the airflow created by the sweeping of her blade.  
  
'Who are you?' Paine asked.  
  
'My name is Nuit.' The young woman replied.  
  
'Need I ask what are you?' Paine said taking in the robe Nuit wore, a long flowing robe covered in spirals of colour that changed before her eyes.  
  
'I am a servant of Time, one of the High Ones.' Nuit replied glancing meaningfully at Paine's sword.  
  
Paine lowered her sword slowly not sure whether she was being lulled into a false sense of security.  
  
'Why are you here?' she asked softly.  
  
'I'm here to ease your mind.' Nuit replied smiling.  
  
'So it was your thought I had just now?' Paine asked.  
  
'Yes, your mind is resonating to us so you will sense us before we appear.' Nuit answered as she leant back against a tree.  
  
'What do you mean Us? There's more of you?' Paine asked suspiciously.  
  
'Yes there are eight of us they call us Immortals. Some of us are evil the rest good. The silver haired man you helped fight off Squall was an evil Immortal called Sephiroth.' Nuit explained.  
  
'Why would he attack Squall?' Paine demanded.  
  
'His master sent him.' Nuit told her.  
  
'Why? Am I in danger too?' Paine asked.  
  
'It seems the Other has plans for both of you. However they can only target Squall as your destiny is still unfolding. The High Ones cannot interfere with you once events have been set in motion. Squall is free his destiny has been fulfilled. But don't worry my child he has been sent help to protect him.' Nuit said softly giving her a reassuring smile.  
  
'So when my story ends does that mean the Other will come for me?' Paine asked reading between the lines.  
  
'We do not know but you will be protected if that is the case.' Nuit replied.  
  
'Squall wasn't!' Paine snapped.  
  
'That's because Sephiroth's attack was unexpected. Besides you have each other in times of need. Your link grows stronger every moment that passes but what effect this will have is unknown to us.' Nuit told her calmly.  
  
'I can't be done with these riddles!' Paine muttered.  
  
'Then do not dwell upon it. Both Squall and yourself are safe so you must concentrate on your own destiny for the good of Spira.' Nuit answered and started to fade.  
  
'Hey wait!' Paine yelled after her. 'Dammit!'  
  
'The good of Spira huh? They didn't think about whether what they done to me was for my own good.' She muttered angrily but underneath was relieved that Squall would be alright. 


	13. The Reaper

The Reaper  
  
The silence was strangely annoying him, he was restless in this bland room that Cid had given him and his head still hurt from where Aeris had hit him. The throbbing could explain the sense of unease the crawled over his pale frame. The eeriness of silence was new to him, his role being that of usher from life to non-life.  
  
Mort sighed and sat back in his chair which creaked ominously whilst his sword lay on his lap, the blade tinged blue as air molecules were cut by the invisible blade. His Lord Death had sent him to help Aeris with the human Squall yet so far she had pushed him away making him wonder what she had to hide.  
  
In her own room Aeris lay on her bed the worn mattress enveloping her as she sunk into it but she sighed contently. It had been a long time since she had been in a proper bed, it seemed that all the beds she'd slept in when she was with Cloud were like this. The young blonde mercenary was never far from her thoughts the last thing she remembered were his eerie blue eyes before pain and Sephiroth tore her from her physical body.  
  
There was a knock at her door making her reluctantly roll off the bed and get up to answer the door. She figured Mort wouldn't be back already, not after the hit he had received, besides she couldn't feel him. The door opened onto a wide friendly grin leading to energetic blue eyes and a shock of blonde spiky hair that made her gasp. It was only the black markings of a tattoo on his cheek that made her realise she wasn't seeing an apparition.  
  
'S'up?' Zell asked, oblivious to her surprise.  
  
Aeris then noticed Squall behind the blond youth. 'Who's this?' she asked him.  
  
Squall indicated for her to let them in before replying. 'This is Zell, a friend of mine. I thought it'd be a good idea if he'd spend some time with you, help you settle in.'  
  
'I see.' Aeris replied her voice still tinged with disappointment.  
  
Zell grasped her hand firmly and shook it vigorously. 'Don't worry you're in good hands.' He told her smiling.  
  
Aeris winced as she clenched her hand to get the flow of blood back and smiled in reply.  
  
'Well I'll leave you two to get to know each other.' Squall said and started to move to the door.  
  
'Wait! I have to tell you something!' Aeris called after him, gently pushing past Zell.  
  
'What now?' Squall mumbled.  
  
'Just that another Immortal is here to help.' She replied in a low voice so Zell couldn't hear.  
  
'Another?' Squall moaned clamping a hand to his forehead and running it through his hair in exasperation.  
  
'Hey I didn't tell him to come. His name is Mort. Just thought I'd let you know.' Aeris replied placing her hands on her hips.  
  
'Fine, whatever...' Squall retorted and left the room finally deciding to head to Rinoa's room and ride the waves of her anger.  
  
'So.... Who is it that's after you?' Zell asked trying to break the silence as he shifted back and forth on the balls of his feet.  
  
'No-one really. I'm here to keep an eye on Squall.' Aeris replied without thinking.  
  
'Why? What's up with Squall?' Zell inquired, idly punching the air.  
  
'Let's just say he's inadvertently made himself a few new enemies.' Aeris told him hoping this would curtail any difficult questions.  
  
'Okay... so that's why he hasn't been around much.' Zell said taking the hint.  
  
'So where are you from then?' he asked changing subject as he flopped back into the chair his leg twitching gently, unable to repress the energy held within.  
  
'That would take a long time to explain...' Aeris told him sitting on the bed, still trying to avoid seeing Zell as Cloud. But then she'd done it before when Cloud had reminded her of Zack.  
  
'Well I got plenty of time to listen.' Zell replied with a disarming grin that made Aeris relent.  
  
'Okay. Well....' She started beginning to relish this chance to tell someone else what had happened to her and hopefully have them understand how it felt.  
  
Mort had taken to pacing his room like a caged animal the soft pressure of silence smothering him as he sought for something to do. His bony fingers twitched to some unheard rhythm whilst in his own mind he could hear the lives of all things around him draining away as time passed. He couldn't fulfil his duties whilst in mortal form yet he was still linked to it.  
  
There was always something dying, to be harvested from this world and sown in the next. He had forever been reaping since his inception, from a mere thought to and actual being, a fragment of the greater Death. Now he was isolated, detached, inert and he ached to do something, anything!  
  
He growled to himself his sword leaving blue silken lines in the air as he swung it back and forth hoping to relieve this pressure in him. He cursed his Lord under his breath for sending him to this prison of flesh, he was not needed here but he wouldn't be released until Squall was no longer endangered. Finally he stalked out the room and headed back to the jungle area where he had first materialised. Surely there he would be needed in his official capacity, he had felt the continual death of monsters when he had arrived, had seen that young girl slaughter countless fiends, and if there was no one there to do it for him he would reap the beasts himself.  
  
Another place, another metaphor, the deep darkness specked with small pinpricks of white light yet a dull mist wove its way among them and a figure knelt in its murkiness in supplication.  
  
'My Lord, I feel that sending Mort to the world was a grave mistake.' The figure said to an unseen figure dryly.  
  
There was a soft dry laugh from the invisible figure. 'Was that pun intended Sever?' Death asked his billowing robe appearing from out of the fog.  
  
'My Lord?' Sever replied seriously his bald head still hidden in the mist.  
  
'I should've guessed not.' Death replied. 'You doubt my judgements?' he then added approaching the crouching Sever.  
  
'No my Lord but I can feel his mind, he is becoming erratic already with restlessness.' Sever replied trying not to cower.  
  
'Better restless than complacent. Injustice may attack at any time. At least Mort will be prepared.' Death said softly touching Sever's shoulder.  
  
'You should have sent me...' Sever murmured.  
  
'I have a task of more importance for you.' Death replied moving his hand from his shoulder.  
  
'Yes my Lord?' Sever replied eagerly.  
  
'I want you to incapacitate Protes.' Death told him dryly.  
  
'Lord!' Sever burst in shock.  
  
'I don't trust Fate. Mort is there to watch Aeris but Protes is still free to do whatever Fate bids and Fate is hiding too much from us for me to believe that Protes will be used for good means.' Death explained in a low whisper.  
  
'I see.' Sever said simply, questioning his Lord's action on Mort was bad enough, he wouldn't push his luck now.  
  
Sever stood, his yellow eyes covered by black stained glass, the clouds of mist curling around the dome of his bare head. His skin was a pale tan with the hint of scales. His body was draped with a ragged deep scarlet cloak hiding the form beneath. A hand hung from the folds of the cloak, long thin fingers ending in long nails. He was face to face with Death and could see in those fiery eyes a flicker of sorrow and disgust of having to do something he didn't feel was right but nevertheless had to be done.  
  
'Be careful Sever, no doubt Fate will be checking up on Protes now Aeris is occupied.' Death warned and faded the mist slowly fading away leaving Sever standing on vacuum in deep space. 


	14. Severance

Severance  
  
Squall strode the hallway to her room, his heart slowly winding up to a nervous purr. He wasn't sure why he felt this way, he wasn't the one who had done something wrong and yet here he was on his way to make things right.  
  
Gore drenched the dry dirt in the Training centre, earth dust settling on a pile of corpses as blue eyes sparked and flashed with each swish of the invisible blade. The hunger still wasn't quelled, each drop of blood only fuelled this rage. He couldn't take this confinement, this lack of action and now he had found some he was unable to let go.  
  
'So you're this being more powerful than a GF but not the almighty powers that be, you were once mortal but Fate made you his slave when your destiny was over?' Zell asked recapping.  
  
'That's about it.' Aeris replied her body shifting slightly before it started to get cramps. She was slightly impressed by how easily Zell grasped things. She tried to suppress a grin as she thought mischievously 'If only.'  
  
'And now someone wants Squall dead because of some ultimate plan. I'm so glad I'm not Squall.' Zell said running his hand through his hair.  
  
On the other side of Garden, Squall was wishing he wasn't him either as Rinoa's door was right in front of him and he couldn't bring himself to raise his hand and knock.  
  
He hated this realm, why did Protes have to reside in such a place? The walls sparkled like crystals, which in fact they were. There was no life as mortals would understand it but plants of crystals littered the ground, green light reflecting from their faceted leaves.  
  
Sever crept along through the chilly undergrowth the flat surface beneath him making him slip occasionally. He dug his claws into the wall as his feet moved uncontrollably under him. Gritting his teeth he pulled himself onto the wall the sharp points tearing his cloak as he crawled along it towards his target.  
  
Rinoa raised her head from her pillow, her hair stuck to her face in strands by the tears that soaked the fabric of the pillowcase. She rubbed her face quickly hoping to hide the fact that she had been crying although she figured her red eyes would give it away. There was a soft knock at the door and her heart leapt as she immediately thought of Squall.  
  
She moved quickly to the door and opened it her eyes flashing as she saw Squall stood there sheepishly. Without saying a word she threw her arms around is neck to his ultimate surprise as she enveloped him trying to hold back tears.  
  
'I hope I can take this as meaning we're okay now?' he said softly, slipping his arms around her waist.  
  
Rinoa didn't answer him, just nuzzling his neck as if she'd been isolated from him for an eternity. Finally she whispered 'I'm sorry.' Still clinging tightly to him as he walked her into her room and shut the door behind them.  
  
'It's time to explain.' He thought to himself.  
  
Sever snarled under his breath as a sharp corner cut into his palm, leaving a smear of blood as he continued to crawl. He could sense an energy ahead, it wasn't that powerful to be Fate so he lessened his caution, creeping faster, his claws digging into the hard crystal as he scrabbled along and leapt onto a crouched figure.  
  
They rolled on the smooth ground, Sever finally pinning the larger figure down. Protes looked up into Sever's yellow eyes. 'What is the meaning of this?' he growled his sharp incisors protruding from his top lip.  
  
Sever didn't answer, trapping Protes' thick muscular arms under his body so he couldn't take a swing at him.  
  
'Answer me!' Protes spat motionless under Sever's form.  
  
'I am only obeying orders. We can't have you lose to obey Fate.' Sever replied wiping goblets of sputum from his face.  
  
'Fool, I don't obey Fate. Not anymore.' Protes replied and flipped over, throwing Sever away and freeing his arms.  
  
Protes stood, his muscular build towering over Sever, his crystalline body creaking as he stretched his limbs. His body was transparent, reflecting and refracting the light into its many components. His eyes flashed red with anger before returning to their original opaque white. He was naked and hairless but then he had nothing that required these to hide them. Backing away from Sever he crossed his arms and gave him a stern look, the tips of his fangs protruding slightly from rough lips.  
  
'What do you mean?' Sever asked getting up in a crouch ready to leap.  
  
'Have you no sense Sever? How can you trust your Lord so blindly? Fate is up to something and I will have no part of it. I'm not sure how much Aeris is aware of but she will guard that human that much I know.' Protes told him.  
  
'Are you saying my Lord cannot be trusted?' Sever growled flexing his claws in warning.  
  
'Who knows? All I know is that Fate has a plan for this Squall and Paine that involves the Other. Fate is full of fear over those two but I don't know why.' Protes answered lowering his arms.  
  
'So I have no need to incapacitate you?' Sever said softly taking in this information.  
  
'Incapacitate me? Hah!' Protes bellowed.  
  
'I could take you.' Sever retorted.  
  
'That I'd like to see little man... but not today. We have more important things than rivalry to consider. We have to uncover Fate's plans.' Protes replied haughtily.  
  
'And what of the consequences? You know if Fate suspects you of treachery he will punish you.' Sever told him.  
  
'Haven't I been punished enough by having to serve him? I was taken from my home, my family just on his whim. At least Aeris and Sephiroth had died when they were taken!' Protes said mournfully.  
  
'I would not know how that would feel. I have no memory of existence before this. I am honoured to serve.' Sever replied and started to stand.  
  
'Maybe if you were allowed to know who you had been you wouldn't be so grateful.' Protes retorted and turned in disgust.  
  
'What do you know?' Sever demanded stepping forward.  
  
'Nothing that will be any use to you. If you really desire this knowledge you should speak to Death or Time.' Protes answered still keeping his back turned to him.  
  
'Fine.' Sever snapped and faded away leaving Protes in his illusion of his home. 


	15. Truth

Truth  
  
'I think I should tell you what's been going on.' Squall told Rinoa softly as she still held him.  
  
'What?' Rinoa looked up into his face, her features suffused with fear.  
  
'Please sit down.' Squall told her and walked her over to her bed, lowering her down as she let go of him.  
  
Rinoa looked up at him expectantly as his lips moved silently as he sought the best way to start.  
  
'The reason I've been so withdrawn from everyone is because I've found out something about my past and there's forces that want to interfere with that.' Squall started to explain.  
  
'What about your past? Whatever it is it would never be so dark as to turn me from you.' Rinoa said softly.  
  
'That wasn't what worried me.' Squall said wondering in the cynical part of his mind whether that would be something to admit since she'd probably feel disappointed that that fear wasn't the reason for his behaviour and so he quickly pressed on.  
  
'I found out I have a twin sister. On another world, stolen from me at our birth.' He said quickly.  
  
'How can she be on another world?' Rinoa asked trying to sound calm whilst her head was spinning with questions.  
  
'You're a sorceress, you know that there are forces higher than us right?' Squall said answering her with a question.  
  
'The Four High Ones?' Rinoa said promptly.  
  
Now it was Squall's turn to be surprised. 'So you know of them?' he asked.  
  
'Well when a sorceress passes on her powers she also passes on her memories and knowledge. You don't really feel it, it just hides in the back of your head until it wants to turn up.' Rinoa told him looking down at her hands.  
  
'Well it was Fate who took her away to another world where she is facing something like we did with Ultimecia. The last couple of weeks I've been dreaming of her and found we can connect in our dreams. However Fate and the other High Ones aren't happy with this and one of them even tried to have me killed. So now I have their servants sent to protect me.' Squall told her.  
  
'Which was that girl I saw you with?' Rinoa said in a whisper trying to digest all this information.  
  
'Yes, Aeris. Plus another called Mort who I haven't yet met.' Squall said sitting down next to her.  
  
'And your sister? What is she like?' Rinoa asked, trying to keep the conversation to a more normal level and away from the part that scared her most, the fact that someone wanted Squall dead.  
  
'She looks similar to me, dresses the same and shares my personality. No doubt her life has been has tough as mine was to make her that way. I just wish I could meet her but Fate says that's impossible.' Squall told her slipping an arm over her shoulders.  
  
'Which is why one of them wants to stop you in case you do?' Rinoa asked leaning into him for comfort.  
  
'I guess.' Squall replied and kissed her head. 'So you can see why I couldn't let anyone know?' he added softly.  
  
'Yeah you hate asking people for help.' Rinoa retorted laughing softly, making Squall smile briefly.  
  
Anger and confusion was all he felt as he scoured the multiverse for her. Protes' words had twisted his world and he needed answers. He knew he could trust Protes, the Righteous one had an extreme loathing for lies and underhand things, which meant he wasn't sure if he could trust his Lord or Fate, which left only her.  
  
She was here, he could feel the pulses, the passing of moments, the flow of it all. Sever paused and closed his eyes and then opened them finding himself in Time's domain, a world of waves and pulsing light, the sounds of a heartbeat and a ticking of a clock in synchrony.  
  
She sat in this cacophony, back to him so all he could see was he glittering red robe and her long black hair and it flowed down her back and swayed gently in a slow rhythm. The sounds became quiet as she turned to face him.  
  
'Sever?' she said softly with a friendly smile although Sever felt sure it was fake.  
  
'My Lady.' Sever replied and bowed.  
  
'Did Death send you?' she asked approaching him.  
  
'No my Lady, I am here to ask you for the truth.' He replied straightening.  
  
Time's smile froze for a brief moment and she looked into his yellow eyes. 'What truth?' she asked smoothly.  
  
'The truth of who I am.' Sever replied softly, flinching at her blank eyes.  
  
'You are Sever, Immortal of Mortality, Servant of Death.' Time replied, perplexed.  
  
'Who was I before that? I have no memory of who or what I was before this. I want to know where I came from.' Sever said in anguish.  
  
'I don't think it is my place to tell you.' Time replied placing a compassionate hand on his shoulder.  
  
Sever shrugged it off. 'I know you know about my past and my Lord will not tell me, this I know.' He said softly. 'So tell me!' he added, snapping glaring into her bleak pits of eyes.  
  
Time recoiled from his anger her face setting into a frown. 'Why do you desire to know so much?' she asked.  
  
'Because I have reason to believe that you High Ones can no longer be trusted and your actions and words are meaningless.' Sever spat.  
  
'You're accusing me of treachery?' Time gasped, affronted.  
  
'Who knows? I know that the Death and Fate cannot be believed. They plot against each other to hidden ends. Possibly the only one to be trusted is the Other.' Sever retorted.  
  
Time's eyes narrowed in anger. 'You really believe that? You'd trust the source of Evil than those who work for the greater Good?' she hissed.  
  
'Why not? At least He can be trusted to do manipulative things, who knows what you do to achieve your ends!' Sever replied scornfully.  
  
'Fine! Then you shall see who you were, for what good it may do you!' Time shrieked and Sever's world went white.  
  
His eyes opened and looked down at his body, the outlandish clothes he wore, yellow, blue and black. His hands were no longer thin and long with claws, but normal, gloved. His body was tanned, limbs exposed to the sun whilst blonde hair waved in his face. A chain hung from his neck, an ornate silver 'J' hanging from it in the middle of his bare chest. In his hand he held a long blue sword, its blade rippling as if it was water.  
  
There was a flash and another vision. There was a giant watery orb above him whilst he was looking up into the dark glass covered eyes of a man dressed in red. Another flash and he was swimming from a giant fish monster with bones protruding from its chest. The flashes got faster, faces, places flickered past his eyes. A young girl with blond hair and swirling green eyes hopping before him, a tall man all in yellow with spiky red hair, a sultry black haired woman in a black dress and fur, numerous belts wrapping her legs, a leonine man with blue fur and a broken horn, the man in red once more holding a giant sword his mouth moving but no words were heard and finally a vision that made his heart stop.  
  
There were woods around him, glittering crystalline blue like that of Protes' world but here it was more human, more organic. He was stood to his chest in water but that wasn't what captivated him, but she did, her tears running from her mismatched blue and green eyes mingling with the water, her brown hair damp as her shoulders heaved before him, her full lips drawing him in closer and closer. Another white flash and this time he was standing behind her wrapping his arms around her waist holding her but could see his body was fading away, could sense the tears she was trying to hold back.  
  
Sever opened his eyes. 'Yuna...' he said softly, and then looked down at his body now and shook with anger.  
  
'What did you do to me!?' he yelled at Time clenching his claws.  
  
'Your time was up.' She replied softly.  
  
'You all made me into a dream on that world just to fulfil your games!' Sever raged. 'Why didn't you just let me disappear!? You tore me from her, gave me this mangled form while taking my memories away and made me a slave!' he snarled.  
  
'You were the one that wanted to know the truth.' Time said softly.  
  
'You took me away from Yuna because of Paine didn't you?' Sever said his yellow eyes flickering with realisation.  
  
Time remained silent.  
  
Sever turned to leave.  
  
'Where are you going?' Time demanded.  
  
'I have to see her... she's looking for me.' Sever replied.  
  
'And you think she could bear to see you like this?' Time said with unnecessary cruelty.  
  
'You can turn me back.' Sever retorted.  
  
'No I think not.' Time said softly and raised her hands.  
  
Sever growled as his body was constricted by invisible bonds.  
  
'I'm afraid it's time to dispose of you, you must not interfere. You don't realise that Yuna is chasing your double, the puppet of Injustice and master of the Vegnagun.' Time said closing her hand making Sever growl in pain.  
  
Time was knocked of her feet by a blow to her back making Sever drop to the ground. She turned to look up into opaque white eyes and blue crystals.  
  
'Another piece to throw away Lady?' Protes growled and stomped over to Sever's limp form, slinging him over his shoulder before nodding to the fallen Time and fading away. 


	16. Rebellion

Rebellion  
  
Protes materialised in his crystallised haven and slid the folded form of Sever from his shoulder onto the smooth ground. He sat and waited in his own thoughts, crackling along the facets of his brain. He had sent Sever to Time to find the truth of himself but had never realised it would come to this. He knew Fate was to blame for the fact that Sever had been taken from Spira, that was his domain but he didn't expect Time would go so far as to destroy Sever, that would affect the balance, how unhinged had the she become that she'd risk it?  
  
Sever groaned, his thin limbs twitching as he sat up. 'What hit me?' he moaned softly his yellow eyes opening and his face grimaced as memory returned.  
  
'Bitch...' he muttered under his breath.  
  
'Sever.' Protes said softly.  
  
'My name's Tidus.' He quickly replied.  
  
'I see...' Protes said quietly.  
  
'Thanks by the way.' Tidus/Sever told Protes. 'So what do we do now? No doubt Time will be looking for the both of us.' He added.  
  
'That's not a problem. They'll have to search hard to find us here.' Protes replied.  
  
Protes rose. 'We are now outcasts so what do you intend to do?' he said to Tidus.  
  
'I have to see Yuna.' Tidus said promptly standing up, his red cloak concealing his body once more.  
  
'That could be difficult, she is entangled in her destiny on Spira, as is Paine and if you've seen the amount of trouble this Squall has caused because of her, you can be damn sure the High Ones will come down hard on you if you try and get involved.' Protes told him.  
  
'So what do you suggest?' Tidus asked looking up into Protes' eyes.  
  
'I think we have to fight... help Squall meet Paine.' Protes replied.  
  
'You mean rebel?' Tidus said.  
  
'I guess you'd call it that, little man.' Protes answered affectionately.  
  
Tidus grinned. 'I was good at doing that.' He said.  
  
The Grat dropped to the ground wounded as Mort lowered his sword cocking his ear to the wind and listened to the imperceptible whispers. 'The idiots!' he laughed and raised his sword bringing it down onto the squirming Grat. Meanwhile Zell was concerned as Aeris had fainted into his arms. 'Come on wake up...' he said anxiously looking down at her.  
  
She had been chatting with him quite amiably until a moment ago when she had swooned, mumbling to herself. Now she was in his arms, her chest rising and falling with slow deep breaths, all warm and soft. Zell admitted to himself that this was a situation he never expected to happen to him and his mind was conflicted with mixed signals of nervousness and excitement.  
  
Luckily, to his relief Aeris opened her emerald eyes and blinked slowly, and looked at him confused and reached a hand to his face stroking his cheek.  
  
'Cloud?' she said softly and smiled leaning up and kissing him softly.  
  
Zell recoiled in surprise still holding her and she looked up into his eyes and shook her head, her eyes loosing their glaze.  
  
'Zell... I'm sorry...' she said softly.  
  
Zell gave a weak grin. 'Don't worry... what happened?' he asked trying to hide his embarrassment.  
  
Aeris slid from his arms. 'Just something bad is going on.' She told him her fingers moving nervously.  
  
'Is it about Squall?' Zell asked anxious, rising to his feet.  
  
'No, its something else.' She replied reassuringly.  
  
'But you fainted.' Zell said uncertainly.  
  
'Just the effect of the event. Unfortunately being an Immortal means you're tied to the feelings of the multiverse and in my case I'm extremely sensitive.' Aeris replied.  
  
'Okay.' Zell replied eying her unsurely.  
  
'The problem is I can't leave to go see what exactly is happening.' Aeris told him and noticed the look he was giving her.  
  
'Look I'm fine okay.' She said to him giving him a piercing look.  
  
'If you say so...' Zell said softly. 'So who's Cloud?' he added.  
  
'Just a certain blond mercenary I was in love with when I was a mortal.' Aeris told him blushing.  
  
'Now I see why you were confused.' Zell replied grinning. 'So what do you want to do now?' he asked.  
  
'It might be a good idea if we see Squall.' Aeris said turning to the door. 'He'll be busy with Rinoa. He may think I'm slow to catch on but I know why he wanted me here.' Zell said.  
  
'Oh? And why's that?' Aeris asked him her hand pausing on the handle.  
  
'He wants to keep his distance from you so Rinoa doesn't get the wrong idea.' Zell said simply.  
  
'Oh...' Aeris said softly her eyes looking down demurely.  
  
'How about we see this friend of yours, what's his name? Mort?' Zell suggested.  
  
Aeris' jaw dropped. 'How did you know about that?' she asked.  
  
Zell gave a wry grin. 'We're taught to listen and be observant.' He replied.  
  
'I see... I guess I should watch myself around you then.' Aeris told him giving him a mischievous grin.  
  
'So do you know where he is?' Zell said trying not to be embarrassed by her.  
  
Aeris cocked her head slightly her eyes looking up for the moment. 'Hmmm. He's in the what you call it... training centre?' she said pausing.  
  
'Restless is he?' Zell said smiling. 'Me and him would probably get along then.' He added and strode past her opening the door.  
  
'Ladies first.' He said smiling and motioned with his hand for her to go through.  
  
Aeris giggled. 'Courteous I see.' She said walking by.  
  
'Ma taught me to be polite.' He grinned 'Especially to someone as pretty as you.' He thought to himself as he closed the door behind him and walked beside her to the training centre giving her body furtive glances and hoping she didn't catch him. The kiss she had given him had created new notions in his head and he hoped she would reciprocate, Immortal or not. 


	17. Threats

Threats  
  
He laughed in the darkness of the void, he could feel it all falling to pieces and he hadn't even planned it! All he wanted to do was show Fate that he wasn't going to be used, he wouldn't just follow his elder brother like the other two, and now there were Immortals rebelling, Squall was being protected and that would make it easier for him to wipe out the other Immortals.  
  
Injustice sat and wondered just what Fate was playing at, was he letting him win or was he finally losing his grip, his laid out plans coming back to bite him? He was unsure what to do next, he would love to destroy all their servants just like they had damaged Sephiroth, plus there was the fact that Squall and Paine combined would turn his existence upside down.  
  
He was trying to think of what Fate would expect him to do next so that he could something totally different when he sensed someone behind him. He stood and turned to find himself looking into blue/green eyes.  
  
'What do you want?' he hissed.  
  
'I bet you feel so smug right now don't you?' Fate said softly.  
  
'What are you talking about?' Injustice growled his emerald eyes flickering.  
  
'Turning Protes against me and starting this rebellion!' Fate snapped back.  
  
'Hey don't you come blaming me! I guess the Righteous Immortal got sick of the way you worked brother.' Injustice retorted.  
  
'I see... and what exactly is that meant to mean.' Fate said softly.  
  
'You're twisted Fate, we all know it. You play around with all these mortals doing whatever you want just to achieve your aims, you only think of the end result not of the consequences during. At least I care about my people.' Injustice replied.  
  
'Whelp! You criticise what I do?' Fate snarled and grabbed Injustice by the front of his shirt.  
  
'Yes I do.' Injustice told him glaring at him. 'You make out you don't plan for Squall and Paine to meet yet you do everything you can to make that more likely. I've seen what they can do when they're combined, you want me reduced to nothingness! You want to rule the multiverse!'  
  
Fate pushed him away. 'You're deluded. You've been so immersed in all the destinies of the worlds we influence that you've contracted you people's paranoia!' he told him laughing.  
  
Injustice glared at him. 'Whatever. I think you're the one who's scared Fate otherwise you wouldn't be here or so bothered by this 'rebellion'. Protes and Sever must really worry you, I can see it in those watery orbs you call eyes.' He said grinning.  
  
Fate looked away. 'And you aren't worried by the fact that they could disrupt the balance you feel I'm trying to disrupt?' he intoned dryly.  
  
'They're belong to you and Death, surely you can't tighten their lease before they cause too much damage... you usually enjoy that.' Injustice retorted.  
  
Fate shot him a look and turned away. 'I don't know what you're up to Injustice but trust me I'll put a stop to it, I always do.' He said and started to fade.  
  
'Yeah well this time you'll never know what hit you!' Injustice snapped to his retreating back.  
  
When Fate had gone Injustice snapped his fingers and a swirl of blackness appeared behind him.  
  
'It's time.' Injustice said softly and the swirls faded too leaving him alone once more.  
  
Zell and Aeris ducked as Grat was blown back towards them, its tendrils swinging over their heads as it crashed into a tree. Aeris got up off the dusty ground and saw the carnage around them.  
  
'Mort what the hell are you doing?' she yelled at the tall pale man who held a sword in his hand its blade made up of patches of blood.  
  
'Purity... well, well, well. I guess you felt it too huh?' Mort said grinning.  
  
'Never mind that! You're not here to go on a killing spree!' she snapped.  
  
Zell just stood behind her following the argument.  
  
'Well I was bored! Beside it wasn't like I was killing people!' Mort whined.  
  
'You're here to protect Squall!' Aeris told him placing her hands on her hip.  
  
'From what? Besides does it really need both of us?' Mort asked his sword dripping blood onto the ground.  
  
'We don't know what might be coming and since Sever and Protes have gone A.W.O.L, we're all that's left and so it'd be easier for the Other to do whatever he wants.' Aeris told him.  
  
'Yeah well when it comes I'll be ready. I couldn't cope being cooped up in that room.' Mort retorted.  
  
'You couldn't think of something better to keep you occupied?' she demanded.  
  
Mort didn't get chance to answer as Zell had double punched him in the sides making him crumple.  
  
Zell sucked his teeth turning to Aeris. 'I thought he said he was ready?' he said to her looking down at the coughing form of Mort.  
  
Aeris tried to hold back a laugh and muffled it with her hand.  
  
Mort rose to his knees, giving Zell a look of pure hatred. 'Think you're funny mortal?' he growled.  
  
'Not really but if I can floor you then whatever this 'Other' can send will no doubt be a lot tougher.' Zell retorted.  
  
'Exactly.' A voice whispered and black swirls formed behind Mort, a scaled hand reaching out from within them, grabbing his red hair and yanking his head back with a loud crack and dropping his limp form, Mort eyes wide open in shock.  
  
Zell leapt back in front of Aeris protectively.  
  
'Who's that?' Zell asked out of the corner of his mouth.  
  
The black swirls faded away and a figure stood before them, one arm reptilian and scaly, the rest of him was seemingly human. He was the same height as Zell but more muscular, with green hair that snaked down his back, his eyes were brown with slit pupils and he wore black pants and vest top. There was a crunch as he stomped on Mort's ribs with a booted foot.  
  
He grinned exposing rows of pointed teeth. 'The name's Rage.' He hissed. 


	18. Negativity

Negativity  
  
'Friend of yours?' Zell whispered to Aeris behind him as the man who called himself Rage stood menacingly before him.  
  
'No.' Aeris replied simply.  
  
'Didn't think so.' Zell replied and jumped forward attacking Rage with a combination of punches.  
  
Rage staggered back a couple of steps, more in surprise than pain. He then started laughing as Zell continued to pummel his body. Zell leapt back from his pointless attack and in time too as Rage's reptilian arm swept lazily at the space he had previously occupied.  
  
'So speed is your strength.' Rage hissed, grinning once more.  
  
'Maybe.' Zell retorted aware of some twisted respect being shown.  
  
'I have no need to kill you. I'm here for Aeris and Squall. If you back off then you'll be left unhurt.' Rage offered his brown eyes watching Aeris as she took a step sideways.  
  
Zell grinned disarmingly and then flipped up into the air from a standing start and landed on Rage's broad shoulders, his knees clamping Rage's head tightly as he rained down blow after blow with his gloved fists.  
  
Rage tried to shake him off, his clawed hand scrabbling at Zell's legs drawing blood, but still the blond fighter fought driving Rage down onto his knees. Using this distraction Aeris had drawn here staff from out of nowhere and rammed it deep into Rage's chest with loud cracking noises. Black smoke poured from within him and he crumbled into a pile of dust, Zell dropping from mid-air onto his bloody knees.  
  
'What the hell just happened?' he panted, wincing as he looked up into Aeris' green eyes.  
  
'Rage is the Immortal of Negativity. When you ignored his offer and attacked you became positivity making him weak and enabling me to use my staff to send him back. Although it won't stop him for long.' Aeris explained, helping him up.  
  
'Right...' Zell said softly, gasping as blood trickled down his bare legs.  
  
'Are you okay?' Aeris asked as Zell swayed on his feet.  
  
Zell grinned. 'Just a scratch.' He replied cheerfully. He was starting to feel light-headed. 'How long do we have before he comes back?' he added looking down at the black dust at his feet.  
  
'Days, weeks maybe... it depends.' Aeris said still more concerned by Zell's condition.  
  
'And Mort?' Zell asked hobbling over to his crushed form, the blood now dripping onto his shoes.  
  
'That's just an empty shell. We don't so much as die as recycle. He'll be back eventually with a dreadful temper due to loss of pride.' Aeris said trying to smile.  
  
'That's good.' Zell said faintly and collapsed, his knees folding under him as he quickly sunk to the ground.  
  
Focus on a pale blue light in the darkness of eternity, draw closer as the light becomes an eerie blue orb the size of a tennis ball. Listen as the laugh from within rings out into the vacuum of space against all notions of physics. Watch as the blue orb is struck by a black swirl and sent drifting until it stops abruptly and seemingly swivels so that a point focuses on the swirls.  
  
'Beaten by a mortal eh Rage?' the soul of Sephiroth laughed dryly.  
  
'I don't know what you're laughing at.' The black swirls of Rage replied sulkily.  
  
'At least I did some damage.' Sephiroth retorted.  
  
'I got Mort!' Rage snapped back.  
  
'You snuck up behind him and broke his neck! I don't see how that counts.' Sephiroth answered the blue orb twirling in an insulting manner.  
  
Rage muttered incoherently.  
  
'What was that?' Sephiroth asked drawing near.  
  
'I said you were just as bad when you killed Aeris.' Rage replied moodily.  
  
The blue orb flashed red momentarily. 'I wasn't exactly in my present condition then.' Sephiroth quipped.  
  
'You're still a puppet.' Rage replied, the black swirls forming some semblance of a grin.  
  
'Cut it out the pair of you.' A weary voice cut in.  
  
The two of them remained motionless as Injustice entered the void his white clothes marred by numerous black patches, a sure sign he wasn't in a good mood.  
  
'Lord...' Rage said folding whilst Sephiroth's orb merely bobbed slightly.  
  
Injustice stood before them and sighed. 'What am I going to do with you?' he said softly looking at the two of them wearily.  
  
Sephiroth and Rage looked as embarrassed as two non-humanoid objects could, hovering in silence.  
  
'The pair of you are losing your touch. There should be ruin and desolation wherever you step, and now mere heroes are trouncing you!' he berated them.  
  
'But Aeris...' Rage started.  
  
'But Aeris!' Injustice said in a mocking whining tone.  
  
'No buts!' he growled. 'You were too arrogant Rage and I wouldn't smirk Sephiroth you were nearly as bad. You were just lucky that Squall and Paine combined were more powerful than I expected!' he barked at them.  
  
'Yes Lord...' they both said in muted synchrony.  
  
'I guess there's nothing else for it. I'll have to release It.' Injustice said softly, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  
  
Behind him Rage and Sephiroth appeared to grin. 


	19. Action

Action  
  
Death sighed as he listened with half an ear to his sister's rantings.  
  
'Fine don't listen to me Death! But it's your own fault if Sever and Protes come mess you up!' Time spat vehemently.  
  
Death waved a non-committal hand. 'They wouldn't try. Besides it seems like Sever has done his job.' He replied.  
  
'What are you talking about? They've both turned against us, and struck me!' Time said enraged.  
  
'Sever was to incapacitate Protes so Fate would be unable to use him. I wasn't expecting you to go tell Sever everything but that's a minor detail.' Death retorted, ignoring his sister's anger.  
  
'Minor!?' she snapped. 'I wasn't expecting him to even ask me about it! I think you're both starting to lose your grip! Fine keep hoping that you're plans work out but I know this, those renegade Immortals with be a thorn in your sides now!' Time told him and faded away, her red dress swishing angrily momentarily as it went.  
  
'So dramatic.' Death sighed and slowly retrieved a blue sword from the recesses of his robe.  
  
'As for you...' he said to the sword.  
  
'Pure luck!' Mort interrupted.  
  
'Enough of the attitude. That blond mortal saved your ass by helping Aeris defeat Rage.' Death said as he placed the sword out in the void.  
  
A skeletal hand grew from the hilt and gripped it as the rest of Mort formed. Mort flexed his arm and the sword swished softly.  
  
'I want to go back.' He demanded.  
  
'Don't push it.' Death replied standing so that his flaring red eyes met Mort's blue sparks.  
  
'You're seriously going to leave Aeris on her own?' Mort said questioning Death's judgement.  
  
'Well it wasn't like you were doing your job.' Death retorted in a sarcastic tone.  
  
'Then what am I to do now? You've reinstated me so you must have something for me?' Mort asked eagerly.  
  
'Well against my better judgement I'm giving you a second chance.' Death said graciously.  
  
'More like because Sever went renegade.' Mort muttered under his breath.  
  
Death shot him a look and continued. 'Instead of helping Aeris you can now go find Sever and Protes and diminish them. No doubt Time is looking for them too.' He said with a smirk.  
  
Mort clicked his heels and gave a mock salute. 'Whatever you say Lord.' He said dryly and stalked off mumbling to himself.  
  
Death sighed. Regardless of what he had told Time, having Sever and Protes running loose was a major problem. Sure it meant Fate lost a servant but he too was a man down. Why did his stupid sister tell Sever his past? Oh well Mort was no good guarding Squall so he may as well try and do something useful.  
  
He dozed peacefully surrounded by warmth, feeling as if he was floating slowly and calmly. The pain he had been trying to deny was no longer with him and his dormant mind assumed that was a good thing, unless he was now dead and it was his soul floating free.  
  
He took the risk and opened his eyes looking up into the face of an angel. 'So this is Heaven?' he thought to himself.  
  
'Good you're awake.' The angel said smiling with relief.  
  
Zell then looked down and found that he was sitting in a bathtub of warm, slightly pale red water. 'So I'm still alive?' he murmured.  
  
'Yeah...' was all Aeris could say in reply.  
  
Zell rose shakily, the water cascading from his soaked clothes and shivered slightly as the air blew over his damp limbs.  
  
Aeris grabbed his arm and helped him out, his feet squelching as they touched the floor.  
  
Zell looked down at his legs and saw that his wounds had disappeared. 'So what was with the bath?' he asked drowsily.  
  
'Just something to get you clean and keep you warm at the same time.' Aeris told him.  
  
Zell tugged at his damp clothes. 'Cool, but I think I'd better go change now.' He told her grinning adding in his head 'If only you'd come join me.'  
  
Aeris followed Zell from the communal bathroom back to his room, staying nearby in case he should fall or anything but he seemed fine as he strode through the corridors dripping water everywhere.  
  
Zell pushed his door open, leaving a damp handprint on the pale grey wood, and started pulling his gloves off, dropping them on the floor and then continued by peeling his jacket and T-shirt off with soft sucking noises as it came away from his skin whilst the door swung shut behind him and Aeris.  
  
Aeris felt her cheeks become warmer and no doubt pinker as Zell proceeded to remove his drenched clothes without any sign of embarrassment or signal that he was going to stop at any point.  
  
Zell paused in the act of undoing his shorts at the sound of a polite cough. He looked round and saw Aeris leant against the door, her cheeks flushed red and an embarrassed smile on her face.  
  
'Oh right... forgot.' Zell replied sheepishly and cast round for a towel eventually finding one folded over the back of his chair.  
  
He wrapped it around his waist, rivulets of water trickling down his bare tanned torso and soaking into it, and he gave Aeris a brief look and she obediently closed her eyes.  
  
She listened to the sound of damp cloth crashing to the floor and the whisper of the towel as he dried himself with it. Her mischievous side whispered to her to take her quick peek, assuring her that he'd never know but she couldn't bring herself to do it.  
  
A small droplet of water landing on her nose made her open her eyes in surprise and found herself looking directly into Zell's blue ones a mischievous twinkle appearing in them as his hands slid down the wall either side of her and he drew nearer his lips meeting hers with no resistance. 


	20. Corpses

Corpses  
  
He knocked on the door and was concerned by the fact there was no answer. Rinoa stood by him expectantly as he tried again.  
  
'That's strange.' He said softly after another silence.  
  
'Well you said you left Zell with her so maybe they're you know?' Rinoa replied her eyebrows moving suggestively.  
  
Squall chuckled dryly. 'Do you really think Zell's like that? Besides Aeris isn't a normal girl.' He replied.  
  
'You never know. Well if they're not here they could be in the Cafeteria or Zell's room.' Rinoa suggested giggling.  
  
'Sometimes I worry about your state of mind.' Squall said with a grin.  
  
'Hey!' Rinoa moaned and punched him on the shoulder playfully.  
  
'Come on I guess we'd better go look for them.' Squall told her and slipped his arm around her waist.  
  
Meanwhile a figure strode through the bodies that littered the Training Centre ground after Mort's massacre. His white shoes kicked up dust which hung in the air avoiding him, spiralling away as he paused in the centre of the ring of corpses.  
  
A spiral of black smoke appeared at one side of him and a blue orb at the other. These objects became the figures of Rage and Sephiroth and they stood alert and on guard as their master Injustice knelt softly on the ground and muttered strange syllables under his breath.  
  
'Prepare the offering!' he barked to his two servants still gazing down at the dusty soil.  
  
Rage and Sephiroth approached the Grat corpses and plunged their hands into their mutilated forms so that they came away soaked in green blood.  
  
'Good.' Injustice said softly and stood holding his hands out to them and they held they cupped hands over his, the blood trickling onto Injustice's palms until they were stained green.  
  
Injustice then turned back to the place where he had knelt and proceeded to draw exotic symbols in the dirt, each mark flashing deep violet as his blood soaked fingers scored the ground.  
  
Aeris broke away from Zell's kiss gasping in shock and horror.  
  
'What's wrong?' Zell asked confused and concerned.  
  
'Something's happening... something bad...' Aeris said softly her green eyes filling with fear.  
  
Zell slipped his hands from her waist and slowly backed away. 'Is it Squall?' he asked as he started looking around for some dry clothes.  
  
'All I can feel is that it's near...' Aeris said closing her eyes, her lips now a thin line of worry.  
  
'Right...' Zell replied and started pulling on some fresh clothes. His mind wasn't working properly at the moment, his lips still tingled from the kiss and there was a seed of anger inside him that it had been interrupted.  
  
Aeris watched him with dismay, the play of his muscles as he forced himself into his clothes and tried to hide what he was feeling. How could she explain to him the disappointment she felt? Not being able to have a normal life, to do normal things like kiss without having something from the outer realms get in the way?  
  
Injustice grinned as his fingers made the final caressing motion on the ground. 'It's done.' He said standing back.  
  
The completed symbol flashed and the ground started to crack and erupt as something pushed up to the surface. A malevolent black blade broke through, pieces of soil falling away as the sword continued to rise. It finally came free from the ground and hung there motionless, giving off a dull field of miasmic energy.  
  
'ATMA Weapon.' Sephiroth whispered in awe.  
  
'The one and only... well used to be.' Injustice said grinning and walked up to the sword grasping the shining silver hilt, the gruesome devilish faces engraved on it leering up at him as he slid his hand along the blade, cutting his flesh so his blood stained the edge.  
  
The weapon blurred visibly in his hand and before their eyes divided into two identical weapons.  
  
Injustice tossed one to Rage and Sephiroth. 'Now let's see what the heroes can do against some serious malevolence.' He said smiling widely, his hand still dripping blood.  
  
Rage and Sephiroth grinned as the slowly swung the swords through the air to get the balance of them and felt a strange dark energy crawl up their arms as the blades glowed. 'Time to go to work.' Sephiroth said grinning as he leapt into the air, his black cloak fanning out like wings behind him.  
  
He seemed to hang in the air for what seemed like an eternity, defying the laws of gravity as he hovered over the Training Centre before spotting a target. In the blink of an eye he was crashing down onto the back of a T-rexaur that was roaming idly, the blade of his ATMA weapon driving deep through its flesh and tearing it apart.  
  
Sephiroth wiped the blood from his face and looked down at his sword in childish glee watching the blood being absorbed into the blade and transferred through his body making him more powerful.  
  
'This time I'll get you Squall.' He growled to himself. 


	21. Mayhem

Mayhem  
  
Squall and Rinoa froze as a shrilling whistle filled the air and then cascaded into a series of rings.  
  
'What the..?' Squall muttered glancing around for whatever threat had set the alarm off.  
  
'Come on.' He told Rinoa grabbing her arm and dragging her down the corridor.  
  
'Hey don't you think it'd be a good idea if we had our weapons?' Rinoa cried.  
  
Squall came to a halt. Rinoa bouncing into the back of him. 'Ah... good point.' He replied slightly embarrassed and let go of her arm so they could run back the other way.  
  
On the other side of the dormitory Zell and Aeris were also running in response to the siren. There was a flood of SeeDs and students as they all rushed to the centre of Garden, ready for anything.  
  
Well almost anything, they wasn't ready for the sight that met them as they exited the dormitory to find Rage and Sephiroth in the middle of a massacre.  
  
'Dammit!' Zell growled, looking at the fallen.  
  
'My God...' Aeris whispered her eyes widening as she saw what they held in their hands.  
  
'What is it?' Zell asked, tensing up for battle.  
  
'ATMA Weapon... The Blade of Malevolence. It absorbs life and makes the wielder stronger.' She told him.  
  
Zell noticed the bodies around them. 'So however strong they were before they'll be a heck of a lot stronger now.' He said softly.  
  
Aeris just simply nodded, her jaw tightening in emotion.  
  
They turned at the sound of running footsteps behind them and found a blade- wielding Squall and tooled up Rinoa approaching.  
  
'What is it?' Squall hissed as he saw Aeris.  
  
'Sephiroth and another bad Immortal.' Aeris replied simply and watched his face pale.  
  
'It gets better, they got special swords as well.' Zell said dryly.  
  
Rinoa peered over Zell's shoulders blanching at the sight of blood.  
  
'Just like old times huh?' she said nervously.  
  
The students that still possessed any sense of preservation had backed off, leaving Rage and Sephiroth in a widening circle of bodies. They finally turned and saw the group of four and Sephiroth broke into a wide grin.  
  
'We meet again Squall.' He said happily.  
  
'Whatever.' Squall said dryly, his jaw clenching in anger.  
  
Zell bunched his fists glaring at the partial reptilian Rage. At his side Aeris pulled out her staff and slowly placed a foot behind her, braced for action.  
  
Rinoa raised her arm ready to fire her projectile, Angel Wing at the first movement.  
  
Sephiroth sighed. 'Ahh.. Purity do you really believe you can make a stand? Surely you understand what we possess?' he said to Aeris softly.  
  
Aeris didn't reply but tightened her grip on her staff.  
  
The six of them stood in a motionless tableau until it was broken by the unexpected. The sound of a sword swishing up into the air arcing ever higher. Rage and Sephiroth's gazes were drawn to it and Squall, now weapon-less, crossed the intervening space his fist connecting with Rage's jaw, a knee slamming up into his wrist making the ATMA weapon drop.  
  
Zell unfroze first, grinning at Squall with respect as the brown haired warrior grasped the ATMA weapon as it tumbled from Rage's hand and brought it up in a swift arc to meet Sephiroth's attack.  
  
Squall's own sword had only just came clattering down onto the floor as Zell pounced on the surprised Rage, now empty-handed. The two of them rolled apart along the ground, Zell slamming into the metal wall that encircled the centre of Garden.  
  
Squall and Sephiroth had pushed each other back towards the elevator, the violet black blades sparkling as they negated each other. But Sephiroth still flowed with the power of the fallen and used his extra strength to push Squall back with a couple of strong overhead blows.  
  
Sephiroth then had to duck and relinquish his advantage as a bladed projectile rotated rapidly through the space where his head had been. Squall took a swipe at Sephiroth's feet making him stumble back unbalanced and a thrust from Squall caught his side, tearing his top and slicing in shallowly.  
  
Squall shivered as the power coursed up his arm, siphoning off some of the power Sephiroth had accumulated.  
  
On the other side of Garden, Zell was slammed against the wall by Rage who gripped his throat tightly in his reptilian claws. Zell tried to bring his fists down onto the muscular arm but it wouldn't even budge.  
  
Choking and running out of breath, he lashed out with his feet, flipping himself up so his feet connected with Rage's chin. The Immortal's grip released and Zell fell to the ground on his back stunned. Rage shook his head and rubbed his jaw snarling. He raised a booted foot above Zell and prepared to slam it down just as he had done to Mort.  
  
Aeris jumped down from the wall behind Rage, bringing her staff down onto his head. Rage spun, enraged and lashed out with his raised foot, slamming Aeris back against the central pillar. Aeris gasped in pain, her green eyes blinking furiously as she slumped down the wall.  
  
Rage turned his attention back onto Zell and found that the young blond had rose from the ground, his face set with anger and determination, his gloved fists entwined with each other as he swung them up at Rage, the double-fist smashing him across the face making him stumble back.  
  
Zell leapt up planting both feet down onto Rage's chest and flipped backwards, fists outstretched so them smashed into Rage's throat. Rage's coughed and sputtered, blood gushing from his mouth. Zell swept his feet from under him so that he fell onto his back. He then stood, stomping in anger onto Rage's shoulders, a sickening crack occurring with each blow. But still Zell wasn't finished, Rage looked up at him with fear, pain and loathing in his brown eyes but was helpless to stop Zell straddling his waist and raining down blow after blow with his fists.  
  
Zell finally stopped as Rage's mortal body lay limp beneath him, his gloves coated in thick blood and broken skin. He was breathing heavily, his cheeks flushed with exertion and spent anger. He stood and looked to Aeris, who still sat slumped by the pillar and then over to Squall and Sephiroth.  
  
Squall wasn't having as much luck with Sephiroth. The two warriors were more evenly matched but even after a number of wounds, the silver haired Immortal wasn't wavering. Sephiroth just grinned as Squall thrust and swept at him, the black blades screeching and grinding under the force of the blows.  
  
Sephiroth hadn't felt like this in a long time, not since Cloud. He had never been challenged so much in his life and was gladdened by the fact that Squall now too possessed an ATMA weapon, otherwise it'd have been too easy and hollow.  
  
Rinoa hung back from the two unable to get a clear shot of Sephiroth as they both moved back and forth, dancing around the blades. She had heard a commotion going on from the other side but hadn't dared risk a look in case Squall was hurt. However now she knew she wasn't needed here she risked a glance and saw Zell in a state of fury, covered in blood and rise from his knees, his battered enemy left behind as he stumbled towards the pillar.  
  
She had never seen a look like that on Zell's face before and it both puzzled and frightened her. Leaving the two swordsmen she ran over to Zell who now knelt by Aeris' side.  
  
'Is she okay?' Rinoa said between breaths as Zell looked up at her his fist raising protectively.  
  
'Just knocked out.' Zell said softly, lowering his fist and then gently moved his hand to the back of Aeris' head checking for signs of bleeding.  
  
Rinoa knelt on the other side of Aeris and used some curative magic. 'Curaga!' she cried, covering Aeris in swirls of white and green light.  
  
The light faded and Aeris opened her eyes. She smiled as she saw the concerned face of Zell and rubbed her head. 'Thank God I don't have a headache.' She said jovially.  
  
She then saw from their faces and the clash of swords that it wasn't over yet. She stood slowly, Zell supporting her by holding her arm and she saw the broken form of Rage. She glanced quickly at Zell but decided against commenting.  
  
They slowly made their way over to Squall who was dripping with sweat as he relentlessly fought Sephiroth.  
  
'Give in to the inevitable Squall.' Sephiroth goaded as another one of his attacks were parried.  
  
'Never!' Squall growled his body now propelled more by will than actual strength.  
  
'So be it.' Sephiroth replied and attacked again bringing his sword down in a sharp stroke that knocked Squall's blade downwards and in the same movement flicked the blade up so it caught Squall's arm.  
  
Squall grimaced in pain and quickly retaliated knocking Sephiroth's sword further up and thrust in the same move piercing his chest. More energy filled Squall's muscles as his ATMA weapon crackled darkly and he pushed the blade further, ignoring the pain as Sephiroth's sword bit into his shoulder. He twisted and pulled the blade back out leaving a gaping hole.  
  
Sephiroth moved a hand to his chest in surprise, his mouth opening and shutting silently. His sword hand lowered slowly as he sunk to his knees and looked up into Squall's burning grey eyes. He then smiled sarcastically as Squall's blade came at him neck height.  
  
Squall watched, drained by exhaustion yet fuelled by relief as Sephiroth's headless body fell to the ground. He leant down and pulled the ATMA weapon from his lifeless hand. The two swords vibrated gently as he held them together and snapped back into one blade. He then turned to the others. 'So is the other one down?' he asked and spotted the blood soaked Zell. 'I'll take that as a yes shall I?' he answered himself.  
  
The four of them looked around at the carnage and waste of life around them. Rinoa and Aeris seemed most affected by it, Zell and Squall looked on in anger but deep inside they knew that this was a part of being a SeeD and sometimes you had to accept it.  
  
'At least they can rest in peace, they've been avenged.' Zell said softly sinking down to the ground.  
  
Squall leant on the ATMA weapon. 'So just what's going to happen next?' he asked Aeris.  
  
'I have no idea... but we may be over the worst.' Aeris replied sitting down by Zell.  
  
'I wonder what kind of time Paine's having...' Squall thought to himself as he watched Rage and Sephiroth's mortal forms fade away.

Authors Note: Kinda long chapter here.. I guess I got carried away lol. Hopefully the viloence isn't too graphic for the PG-13 rating but if it is I guess I'll have to put it up to R. So if this fic disappears from the PG-13 category you'll know where its gone to!


	22. Completion

Completion  
  
She lay out on the Celsius, the clouds folding away as the red airship cut through them. It felt weird to be at peace now. Vegnagun had been destroyed and Shuyin defeated. But then so had Yuna, all this searching for this Tidus and all she got was his copy and more confusion.  
  
Yuna planned to continue to search the world for something that would lead her to him, but the world had been changed once more, the three factions now leaderless but they'll something to take their places no doubt.  
  
Paine ran a hand through her hair and wondered whether she should continue to help Yuna as she had become close to her and even Rikku in a way, but she had her own mission, someone whom she sought as Yuna sought Tidus.  
  
She knew that her destiny on Spira was over now or at least at a region of peace therefore the Four High Ones will be able to intervene in her life once more and she didn't want to endanger her companions.  
  
Anger contorted his body as he stormed up and down his own created cleft in dimensions. Injustice had been beaten again, his two Immortals crushed even while wielding ATMA Weapon, the sword of Evil. He had given up on Squall but now Paine was available and he could concentrate on her.  
  
He crumpled down in the void his head resting in his hands, copper hair sticking through his fingers as he sought to clear his head, work out what schemes his brother Fate would have in store for Paine and what he should do now.  
  
Everything he had tried to eliminate Squall had failed and not through the intervention of Immortals. Strangely Aeris had been incapacitated early in Rage and Sephiroth's attack, surely Fate would have had planned something to counter this eventuality? But then Squall and his friends had been able to take care of themselves.  
  
Injustice wondered if he was going about this the wrong way and then suddenly inspiration struck. He now knew what he had to do, who he had to see. He had been wrong all along.  
  
Paine was beginning to feel paranoia rise inside her, it had been too quiet these past few days. They had stayed in Besaid for a while, Yuna and Rikku happily anticipating their roles as Godmothers to Lulu and Wakka's future child.  
  
She herself had anticipated a visit from Nuit, hopefully explaining what was going on with Squall. Her dreams had been devoid of him beyond the images her mind brought upon her. She could feel he was still alive as she hadn't felt the pain that had almost crippled her when that silver haired man had attacked Squall.  
  
However she had caught a glimpse of a scrawny figure with a bald bulbous head and yellow eyes enswathed in a red cloak occasionally in the forests of Besaid. Especially when Yuna was around. She guessed she should mention it to the others but the poor creature seemed to be harmless and pining... if such a word could be used to describe his behaviour.  
  
She sighed to herself and looked down from the cliff where Yuna and Rikku waited. Breathing deeply she moved to edge and dived into the deep pool below to join them.  
  
He had finally caught up with them, he should've thought of this sooner, but then Spira had only been released from its embargo a few weeks ago and he would've thought Sever and Protes wouldn't be so foolish as to go there. Mort grinned happily. He'd be able to finish his mission at last.  
  
'I think you're going to have to stop spying on her.' Protes told Tidus as he returned back to the cave where the renegade Immortals now hid.  
  
'Why?' Tidus replied sitting on a protruding rock.  
  
'You've been seen and no doubt others have been sent to seek us and eventually they'll realise we're here.' Protes told him sagely and bit into a large quartz crystal.  
  
'You're just paranoid, I always take care to remain unseen.' Tidus retorted.  
  
Protes laughed, fragments of quartz sputtering from his lips. 'Paine has seen you countless times, you're so entranced by Yuna you let yourself be seen momentarily.' He told him.  
  
'And how do you know that?' Tidus said sarcastically.  
  
'It's easier for me to get around I can blend into the rocky environment. I follow you in case you get into trouble, I admit though that Paine only notices you because she is constantly on the look out for something.' Protes replied matter-of-factly.  
  
'Well you boys won't have to worry about being seen anymore.' A dry hoarse voice creaked from the mouth of the cave.  
  
Pale light caught a blade making it shine blue as Mort stepped from out the shadows grinning gleefully.  
  
'Mort!' Tidus growled jumping down from his rock.  
  
'Did you really think you could get away forever? You turned your back on us and now you have to pay the price!' Mort told them raising his sword.  
  
'And you think that what your masters do is right?' Protes asked calmly.  
  
'Of course, what choice do they have? They're forever in antagonism to the Other.' Mort said dryly.  
  
'And so you think that excuses what they did to us?' Tidus spat. 'Sometimes we individuals don't matter. Besides you were a mere figment, now you're a supreme being!' Mort said grandly.  
  
'I'd rather be who I was.' Tidus said softly.  
  
'Well that's exactly what you're going to get. You get to become nothing once more!' Mort said grinning darkly and lunged at Tidus.  
  
A hand grabbed his wrist and Mort turned in surprise into emerald eyes and copper hair as his arm was bent back, his own sword impaling his chest. Mort fell to his knees as Injustice released his grip, the two renegades staring in mute shock.  
  
'You should remember what you said about turning your back on us.' Injustice said softly as he pushed the limp form of Mort over, Mort's face paling more than usual as his mouth opened and shut silently with a final gasp.  
  
'Well now isn't this cosy.' Injustice said jovially with a wide smile to Tidus and Protes. 


	23. Blurred Lines

Blurred Lines  
  
The blade lay across his lap, its dark surface slowly changing as lines of neon blue crackled along it. Squall had asked Aeris about the sword before she had been carried off by Zell and she hadn't been too helpful. She had told him that the sword was now his and now that it had been called it couldn't be banished until his death. He worried about the dark power it represented but Aeris had only shrugged at his concerns, but then she was still suffering from Rage's attack and the massacre that had lain before them.  
  
He had stood by and let other SeeDs and students carry the dead away, Dr. Kadowaki had been among them vainly searching for any survivors. There would be a mass funeral in the next day or so, he would have to be there but he hoped he wouldn't have to say anything. What could he say? He didn't really know most of the people that fell, besides it was partly his fault, he had brought this tragedy to them.  
  
But then the rage burned inside him at those ultimately to blame, Fate, Death, Time, the Other. Squall's fist clenched and shook as he swore on those that had fallen that he would make the High Ones pay, for no matter what Zell said, their souls may rest because the immediate cause of their deaths had been avenged but his wouldn't until the ultimate cause was dealt with. If only he knew how.  
  
'You don't look so glad to see me...' Injustice said in a hurt voice.  
  
Protes unfroze first the quartz rock crumbling as his huge hand clenched into a fist. 'Give us one reason why we should be?' he growled.  
  
'Well I just saved your miserable existences.' Injustice said matter-of- factly. 'Besides I think we can help each other.' He added.  
  
'We don't want anything to do with you!' Tidus hissed.  
  
'Really? So you don't want freedom? You don't want a hand bringing Paine and Squall together?' Injustice asked.  
  
Protes' jaw dropped. 'How did you know..?' he mumbled.  
  
'I finally figured it out. All this time Fate was tricking me into getting rid of Squall so that he'd never be able to meet Paine by making me think he wanted them together to get rid of me once and for all. But now I know, now I see, he doesn't want them to be together, something about the two of them worries Fate and he can't be seen to kill his own, so he'd have me do it and he almost got his way. Damn I hate my brother!' Injustice replied his voice becoming edged in anger.  
  
'And how do we do this?' Tidus asked approaching Protes.  
  
'We hijack the Junction.' Injustice grinned evilly. Tidus and Protes started in surprise. 'That's impossible!' Tidus stammered.  
  
'Really? Have you forgotten who I am? Who you are?' Injustice told him brushing his hair from his eyes. 'Damn Death must have done a number on you to make you unaware of your potential.' He said his emerald eyes rolling.  
  
'What?' Tidus barked, looking at Injustice and then at Protes, who gave him a non-committal shrug.  
  
Injustice laughed. 'It's no good looking at him he hasn't a clue either besides he's the weaker of Fate's two.' He said.  
  
Protes frowned. 'If that's the case why does she still serve him?' he argued.  
  
Injustice sighed. 'Aeris has never been Fate's servant, sure she may obey his orders, to be honest only Tidus here has ever broken that power we have over you...' he started and raised a hand as Protes went to interrupt him.  
  
'Again you only questioned Fate's ideals for the first time now, Aeris has questioned them ever since she has been bound by him and she warped his orders where she saw fit. It comes from her being human. Now you Protes were only able to go against us because of Tidus.' He continued.  
  
'What are you talking about?' Protes growled perplexed.  
  
'I can't be done with explaining. It just has something to do with who he was okay?' Injustice told them.  
  
'Fine.' Protes relented.  
  
'Good.' Injustice said and sat on a rock. 'So maybe we can plan what we have to do?' he suggested and the two renegades came closer to him in a huddled discussion.  
  
Fate sat by the bank of the river in his personal dimensional room. He sighed as the water wound its way by his feet. His little brother had failed to do what had been expected of him. Squall still lived and now Injustice had given up on him. Fate closed his blue eyes and rubbed his temple as the tension grew. How could he stop Squall now without the others realising? Paine was free but Time was watching over here and if he tried anything it'd seem suspect.  
  
Something had to be done about Squall, he could never meet Paine, not after all he had done to prevent it. Damn Shiva she just had to let Paine open to Squall hadn't she? Damn her love for the boy, and damn Injustice too for being so useless! Fate's jaw clenched in anger, the muscles becoming taut. He needed something that would remove Squall and occupy Aeris at the same time. He opened his eyes as inspiration struck. 'Yes...' he said softly and smiled.  
  
Zell watched over Aeris as she slept, her body covered in bruises from where Rage had struck her. They hadn't spoken much to each other since the attack, Zell reasoned that she was still drowsy from the injury she sustained to her head.  
  
He had peeled his gloves off and washed the blood off his hands but still they burned. He knew it wasn't anything physical that made his hands feel that way but the anger and hatred that boiled in his veins. He had been surprised at the strength of feeling he had when he had seen Aeris hurt, the power that had coursed through him as he pushed his own aching body from the ground and launched at Rage.  
  
He had been unable to stop himself as he had punched and punched, crushing flesh and bone under his fists. He had only finally stopped when his concern for her finally over-rode the anger, the hatred which had grown with each blow rather than dissipated.  
  
He looked at himself in the mirror, saw the mix of emotions flowing in his blue eyes, all of which started from the frustration of an abruptly curtailed kiss. He heard Aeris murmur in her sleep and watched her roll over kicking the sheets off her.  
  
He wondered what she saw in her dreams, whether he was there now or all she saw was all the things in the multi-verse she was connected to. Curiosity got the better of him as he drew nearer to her, hoping to her the words that escaped her lips.  
  
'Cloud... No...' she murmured softly her face twitching in her sleep.  
  
Zell pulled back, his face frozen in dismay. 'So it was this Cloud again... didn't he mean anything to her at all?' he thought.  
  
He sunk to the floor looking at his hands sadly and then the next moment he was blown back as the door to Aeris' room exploded. 


	24. On Cloud Nine?

On Cloud Nine?  
  
Aeris shot up in the bed going from sleep to fully alert in seconds as shards of wood rattled against the far wall. Zell flipped himself up from his back and found himself looking up into the biggest sword he'd ever seen and eerie blue eyes full of anger.  
  
'Cloud? How?' Aeris said as she recognised the blond warrior.  
  
'So that's Cloud huh? I can see why she might've got me confused with him.' Zell thought to himself noting Cloud's spiky blond hair.  
  
'Finally I've found you... I knew if I kept searching I'd find you again.' Cloud said in a crazed voice.  
  
'You can't be real!' Aeris screamed at him.  
  
Cloud glared at Zell. 'What have you done to her!?' he bellowed and swung his sword at him.  
  
Zell jumped back as the blade narrowly missed him. 'I haven't done anything! What the hell are you doing?' he retorted.  
  
The blade came at him again in reply and Zell jumped up landing on the wide blade using it as a springboard to flip over Cloud and grab him around the neck.  
  
Cloud growled and dropped his Buster Sword, ramming his elbow into Zell's stomach. Zell grimaced in pain but held tighter to his neck dragging Cloud down to the ground.  
  
Cloud wheezed as he ran out of breath, his mako blue eyes blinking slowly as Zell subdued him. Cloud went limp in Zell's arms and Zell relaxed his grip slightly. Cloud was still breathing slowly but was out cold. Zell idly considered breaking his neck after all he had attacked him, but he knew that was just the jealousy talking. No doubt if he did it Aeris would hate him, besides he wanted to know how the hell Cloud got here.  
  
'Well I guess it's time.' Injustice said to his two cohorts.  
  
'Let's hope this works.' Protes said sullenly.  
  
'Oh ye of little faith.' Injustice replied sarcastically.  
  
The three of them blurred as they left Spira and travelled through the endless void of space until they came to the green spiral that indicated the entrance to the Junction.  
  
'You first.' Injustice told Tidus and Protes.  
  
Protes shot him a look and growled. 'This had better not be some trick... I wouldn't put it past you to sell us to your brethren.' He said.  
  
Injustice rolled his eyes. 'Damn it! They're all against ME! Why would I help them? Just go and I'll be there right behind you. I can't just turn up... Time will get suspicious...' he replied and shoved the two of them through the entrance.  
  
Aeris stood over Cloud as he lay tied to the bed in the Infirmary. He hadn't changed at all since she had last seen him, knelt before him praying to the Planet. She knew this couldn't be right, the time she had spent in Fate's service had been too long for him to still be alive.  
  
Zell stood by her looking on dispassionately at the love she lost, the figure who had not so long ago tried to kill him. All he could feel inside is jealousy, he had just been some kind of replacement for this man, now he was here in the flesh what was the need of his presence?  
  
He watched in surprise as Aeris walked across the room to a drawer and removed a scalpel, its blade glinting in the light and she walked back towards the prone Cloud, the implement grasped tightly in her hand as her face set with intent. Zell thought of letting her just do what she intended as it seemed that murder was in her eyes, but then he decided that he couldn't let her do that, couldn't mar the innocence he saw inside her.  
  
'Don't.' he said softly stepping between her and Cloud.  
  
'Don't what? I have to see, I have to know.' She replied glaring at him.  
  
'Know what?' Zell asked still blocking her way, arms outstretched, wary of the sharp blade she still held.  
  
'That he's real.' Came the reply.  
  
'And you'll do that by killing him?' Zell asked shocked.  
  
Aeris' eyes widened in surprise. 'Kill him? I...I wouldn't do that!' she stammered.  
  
She looked at Zell in astonishment. 'You really thought I'd do that? I only wanted to make a small cut to make sure he was what he seemed...' she told him.  
  
Zell looked at her sheepishly. 'Well it looked that way to me... maybe you wanted to kill him so that you wouldn't have to believe he was real... how would I know? I'm not like you I don't know anything outside of my world.' He replied and stepped aside.  
  
Aeris walked past him and gently cut the flesh of Cloud's arm. Instead of a trickle of red blood, a small spiral of grey smoke rose from the wound.  
  
'An Ether Puppet...' she gasped.  
  
'A what?' Zell asked turning sound to her. 'So this isn't really him?' he added hopefully.  
  
'No this is a fake, a doll made of essence... it contains the faded memories of the dead.' Aeris explained.  
  
'So who made this Cloud puppet then?' Zell asked watching as the rest of the fake Cloud evaporated as grey smoke.  
  
'Only the High Ones can make them, they're a much lesser form of us Immortals.' Aeris told him dropping the scalpel onto the now empty bed.  
  
'Did you really wish that it would really he him?' Zell asked softly as he watched her slump against the side of the bed.  
  
'I don't know...' Aeris sighed.  
  
'Well you loved him didn't you?' Zell persisted, not sure why he was doing this to her, what he expected from her.  
  
'Yes I did but then I lost him. No doubt he and Tifa made it together after they saved the Planet. I was never able to go back and see, never knew what happened after I was taken...' Aeris told him standing up.  
  
'So that's why you never knew if he was dead or not?' Zell said wanting to wrap his arms around her and comfort her.  
  
'I guess... its not easy to keep track of time when you're an Immortal. Most of the time you're just a mobile personality flitting through space until times like this when They want us to be mortal. I never got to go back home, once the path is walked they usually never go back to the same planet or people.' Aeris told him moving closer.  
  
'Yet they seem to have come back to us, and this Yuna on Spira.' Zell said aware of her arm gently brushing his.  
  
'That's a mystery everyone wants to solve...' Aeris said softly and then spun round so she stood facing him.  
  
She looked up into his eyes, her own filled with so much pain. 'Hold me... please?' she whispered.  
  
Zell didn't need to be asked twice, his arms already moving around her slim waist and drawing her in so that her head rested against his chest. Her own arms gripped his back, holding tightly as if he were all that existed.  
  
Cle looked up from his position from within the Junction as the two renegade Immortals appeared.  
  
'You!' he hissed. 'How dare you show your faces here!' he raged. Tidus and Protes looked at each other unsure what to do and then remembered their parts.  
  
They turned and looked menacingly at Cle.  
  
'And just what exactly do you intend to do about it?' Tidus asked stepping forward.  
  
There was a grinding as Protes clenched his fist. 'Yeah, you're just a glorified guard.' He growled.  
  
Cle looked up at them a flicker of fear passing across his eyes before it was replaced by bravado.  
  
'The most important guard in the multi-verse!' he retorted and pulled his weapon from his hip, a large metallic truncheon that glowed and eerie green.  
  
Injustice then suddenly appeared in the Junction between Tidus, Protes and Cle.  
  
Cle's eyes lit up in relief. 'My Lord!? You've come to apprehend these miscreants?' he asked trying to keep the quavering from his voice.  
  
Injustice grinned disarmingly. 'No I came for this!' he said cheerfully, forcing a hand into Cle's chest and clenching his fist around something within.  
  
He pulled his hand back holding a spiky silver key in his fist. He turned to Tidus and Protes as Cle crumpled to the ground.  
  
'The Junction's ours boys.' Injustice said grinning triumphantly. 


	25. The End Of The Start

The End Of The Start  
  
Time arose from the void to be presented by the static green glow that now marked the entrance of the Junction. She ran her hand over the eerie green light and tried to force her hand through. This was met by a sharp buzz and Time being forcibly thrown back.  
  
'Yeowch!' she cried shrilly in pain.  
  
'So they have locked us out of the Junction then?' the dry creaking voice of Death said as he came out from behind a nearby nebula.  
  
'But that should be impossible! Immortals wouldn't have the power or know how to do so.' Time retorted rubbing her now reddened hand.  
  
'Well maybe they had help.' Death said softly his flaming eyes flickering.  
  
'What are you suggesting Death?' Time asked witheringly.  
  
'Well there's only two of us here so that means it's possible that one of the other two is in there.' Death replied scathingly.  
  
'Are you implying I was involved?' Fate said icily as he appeared from nothingness.  
  
'Well you never know.' Death said sneering.  
  
'The whelp is helping them... seems like he took losing real hard this time.' Fate told the others eyeing the inert door of the Junction.  
  
'But to help renegades... why?' Time said softly.  
  
'It is in his nature, the renegades rebelled just as he does.' Fate said sighing.  
  
'You seem awfully calm about this Fate, are you sure you had nothing to do with this?' Death demanded.  
  
Fate spun round glaring at Death in anger. 'You still accuse me!? There's not much we can do now Injustice has control, he can transport anything and everything he wants to wherever he wants. All we have to do is wait until he acts and hope we can repair the damage he causes in his childish tantrum.' He said seething.  
  
'This wouldn't be happening if you had done a better job of severing the link between Squall and Paine. We warned you of separating them but you wouldn't listen would you?' Death snarled.  
  
Fate struck out with his fist hitting Death across the face. 'SILENCE!' he barked as Death raised his hand to his cheek whilst Time gasped.  
  
'Now we can stop this immature arguing and try and get past this and limit the damage.' Fate said curtly, ignoring the looks the other two gave him.  
  
'And what do you propose? He can do anything in there now he has the Key.' Death said sulkily.  
  
'The best we can do is watch over Squall and Paine, no doubt they will be his targets.' Fate said softly and faded away.  
  
'I'm getting sick and tired of him.' Death said darkly, his pale face still marred by a red handprint.  
  
'Well you can be just as bad.' Time snapped.  
  
'Oh really?' Death retorted. 'Fine you go and help him. I'll be fine on my own!' he added huffily and disappeared too.  
  
'Male Personifications!' Time muttered to herself and she too faded from the immediate area.  
  
Inside the Junction, Injustice, Tidus and Protes sat in the eerie centre, all around them the numerous vortices that lead to every universe, every dimension stood still and dormant as coloured circles of light.  
  
'So what do we do now?' Tidus asked pacing the central chamber.  
  
'Well you two can stay here and make sure nothing comes in whilst I go get Squall and Paine.' Injustice told them pocketing the Key.  
  
'Why you?' Protes growled.  
  
'Dammit! Do you still distrust me? Look I am one of the High Ones that means I have the power to cross the barriers of the Junction, plus I have the Key. No doubt if we to use the Junction one of the others would try and find where the user was and go after them, and being a High one I'm the only one here that'd be a match for them yes?' Injustice replied.  
  
Tidus just shrugged while Protes nodded reluctantly.  
  
'Good, now that's sorted I'll go and get our guests.' Injustice said and walked through a dark blue circle of light that enveloped him.  
  
'Do you really think he'll bring Squall and Paine here?' Protes asked Tidus after Injustice had gone.  
  
'Well why wouldn't he?' Tidus replied.  
  
'Well now he can do what he want without the others interfering he could just kill them.' Protes retorted. 'No we both know that Fate wants them dead and Injustice will do the opposite of what Fate wants, that's how the Multi-verse works.' Tidus answered with certainty.  
  
'I sure as hell hope so, otherwise we'll be joining them.' Protes said softly and just sat in the void waiting.  
  
Aeris looked up at Zell as she was still cradled in his arms. She had felt the world around them crystallise and solidify, Zell's body becoming as rigid as a statue entrapping her.  
  
'Someone's controlling the Junction, and their here...' she thought wildly and tried to slither out of Zell's arms and found she couldn't, she was trapped.  
  
'Well, well. Look what we have here.' Injustice said to her grinning.  
  
Aeris looked over Zell's stiff arm shooting him a look of hatred. 'You...' she hissed.  
  
'Now, now Purity. What's with the hostility? I'm not here to hurt anyone... I'm here to grant Squall's wish and when I go your lover-boy here will be able to let you go.' Injustice said smarmily.  
  
'Then why did you try to kill him before, Sephiroth, Rage, ATMA Weapon. Every time you upped the stakes. Why did you sent a Cloud puppet to get me?' Aeris demanded.  
  
'Whoa... the Cloud puppet wasn't mine, dear Purity. That'd probably be your Master. He would have that soul remember? Besides it was because my dear brother tricked me that I tried killing Squall in the first place.' Injustice replied.  
  
Aeris' face paled as she stopped struggling.  
  
'That's right we both know how two-faced Fate is, how twisted and slippery he can be. Now if you'll excuse me I have to find the lucky boy before my siblings ruin the surprise party.' Injustice said with a sarcastic sneer and disappeared.  
  
Squall frowned as Rinoa suddenly stopped moving and time froze around him.  
  
'What the hell is this?' he asked himself spinning around.  
  
'Your chance to have your wish fulfilled.' An answer came as a copper haired figure appeared out of nowhere before him. 


	26. Uneasy Alliance

Uneasy Alliance  
  
'Who are you?' Squall growled reaching out for the gun-blade on the nearby desk and was surprised that it seemed fused to it.  
  
'I'm Injustice, the other High One.' Injustice replied holding his hand out.  
  
Squall knocked it aside angrily. 'So you were the one trying to kill me!' he snapped.  
  
Injustice sighed and retracted his hand. 'Yes that's true. I sent my Immortals to kill you... that's what I do. I have to go against whatever Fate does... do you know how annoying that is? I never get to win!' he said grimly.  
  
'But now I know that if I had killed you I'd have lost again because Fate wants you dead, he never wanted you near Paine but I can keep you alive and get you to see Paine, if you can trust me.' He added.  
  
Squall glared at him. 'Can you really let me meet Paine?' he asked slowly.  
  
'Sure, but we haven't much time... the others will notice I'm here and come for us... you have to decide now.' Injustice said hastily.  
  
Squall stood in silence his gaze changing as some inner discussion raged. 'Fine but you have to let me have a weapon.' He replied finally.  
  
'If it makes you feel better...' Injustice said softly and snapped his fingers the gun-blade coming away from the desk.  
  
Squall holstered it against his thigh and asked 'What now?'  
  
'Follow me.' Injustice replied and stuck his arm out bringing it down through the air and caused a rent of darkness to open.  
  
The two of them entered, Squall walking hesitantly behind Injustice. The rent closed behind them sealing the dimensions and real time came back to the world.  
  
Rinoa looked around frantically at the empty space before her. 'Squall?' she called out and stood, running out the room bewildered.  
  
Aeris fell back as her struggles made her fall from Zell's now unfrozen arms.  
  
'What's going on?' he asked her looking down at her with an expression of hurt.  
  
'Time freeze... Injustice was here for Squall.' Aeris replied as Zell reached down to help her up. 'How do you know this?' Zell asked confused.  
  
'I'm not bound by time if it stops I still go on...' Aeris told him brushing herself off.  
  
'So if time is back now that means...' Zell said slowly and looked at her with a fearful look in her eyes. Without a word he left the room and entered the corridor bouncing into a distraught Rinoa.  
  
'What's wrong?' he asked her hoping that his first thoughts were wrong.  
  
'Squall's just disappeared! One second he was talking to me the next he was gone!' Rinoa wailed.  
  
'Dammit!' Zell muttered and looked back yearningly at Aeris.  
  
'There's not much we can do... Injustice has control of the Junction.' Aeris said softly as she appeared from around the door.  
  
'Don't give me that! This is all your fault!' Rinoa snapped.  
  
Aeris stayed silent aware of how shocked Rinoa was and that she was only lashing out in worry.  
  
'Well was there any sign of struggle?' Zell asked trying to find something good in all this.  
  
'No...' Rinoa said softly.  
  
'Then maybe he went of his own accord... Injustice said something about taking Squall to see Paine...' Aeris murmured.  
  
'But Injustice was trying to kill him it could be a trick!' Zell retorted.  
  
'Yeah but Squall might risk that if he thought there was any chance he could see her right?' Aeris reasoned.  
  
'I suppose...' Zell relented, Rinoa nodded slightly in agreement.  
  
'Now all we can do is wait and hope this all works out...' Aeris told them glumly.  
  
They reappeared inside an eerie green orb with numerous coloured circles floating around inside it. These however were not what first caught Squall's attention but the two other figures that rose as they appeared.  
  
One was large and craggy, a body of crystal, the other was his height yet very thin, his body hidden by a ragged red cloak and had large yellow eyes.  
  
Squall drew his gun-blade in surprise, expecting them to be a threat and glared at Injustice's back.  
  
'So it was some kind of trick!' he hissed angrily.  
  
Tidus and Protes turned to look at each other wondering what was going on.  
  
Injustice spun round to face Squall his hands raised. 'Whoa! They're with me, they're on our side... just be calm... that's the problem with you Heroes, always jumping to conclusions.' He told him.  
  
'Right... whatever.' Squall replied slowly lowering his gun-blade and the others visibly relaxed.  
  
'So you're Squall huh? I'm Tidus... I used to be a Hero too from Spira but They took me away from her.' Tidus said rapidly spitting at the word They.  
  
Squall's eyes lit up. 'Spira? So you know Paine?' he asked.  
  
'No... I was taken away before Paine was called.' Tidus replied sadly.  
  
'We all have our reasons for hating the High Ones... especially Fate. He toys with us all without concerns for our emotions. That is why we are here... even if we don't trust each other completely.' Protes chipped in with his gravely voice looking pointedly at Injustice who rolled his emerald eyes in reply.  
  
'You got that right.' Squall said in reply and then turned back to Injustice.  
  
'So what happens now?' he asked. 


	27. Second Guest

Second Guest  
  
The paranoia had grown within her the last few days. Maybe it was because after all that had happened Besaid was too quiet for her to cope with, plus that strange fellow had stopped appearing and that concerned her. She had been told then when the time came she would be guarded, and she assumed that now the world was saved... sort of, this Other would come for her as they had Squall.  
  
The more she thought about it the more she wondered whether the yellow eyed figure had been her guard and if he was gone that meant he either was no longer needed or had been incapacitated in some way. Her cynical mind couldn't even believe it was the former, surely if an all powerful being wanted her dead they wouldn't just drop it like that.  
  
Paine sighed, she couldn't take thinking like this any more, but ever since she had been part of that operation Crimson, since she had been drawn into the Gullwings and dragged into this world of turmoil and had her mind opened to things that were beyond her, her mind couldn't go back to thinking the way it used to.  
  
She needed her brother now more than anything, she had been denied a family in her youth and now there was at least one person left that was part of her that needed her too. She had always felt like something was missing which may have been why she had driven herself to search for something without truly knowing what that was.  
  
This restlessness of hers was becoming more pronounced so much so that Yuna and Rikku were getting concerned. She couldn't have them drawn into this, not if these Entities were gunning for her. Her companions couldn't become targets not after all the danger they had faced together. She wandered off alone through the shady forests of Besaid, ancient structures towering over her choked by plant life.  
  
From within the Junction Squall looked down at his sister as she wandered alone.  
  
'She looks so close I could touch her.' He whispered in awe.  
  
'You pretty much can.' Injustice told him.  
  
Squall shot him a look. 'Seriously?' he asked.  
  
'Sure, in here we can do anything.' Injustice told him grandly.  
  
'So I could go be with her now?' Squall asked his voice aching with desire.  
  
'You could but it wouldn't be safe.' Injustice told him watching his face drop. 'Tidus! You're coming with me to get Paine.' He added watching Squall's face light up again while Tidus' contorted with confusion.  
  
'Why?' Tidus asked.  
  
'One Paine recognises you, two no doubt my brethren are onto us by now.' Injustice snapped back a reply and then wandered to a deep red solid circle. 'Come on then!' he added as he walked through it.  
  
Paine froze as she realised that the sound of bird song had stopped suddenly and that she no longer felt the breeze on her face. She unsheathed her sword and held it ready, turning round to look for any signs of threat. It was then that the skinny figure with the big yellow eyes that she had seen before came tumbling out of the undergrowth before her and landed on his knees before her.  
  
'It's you... who are you?' she demanded as Tidus looked up at her dazed.  
  
'I'm a friend... I won't hurt you trust me!' Tidus said quickly raising his hands up in a sign of submission. 'We're here to take you to your brother.' He added.  
  
'We?' Paine asked, although her mind was now reeling from the fact that he said they would take her to Squall.  
  
'Yes we.' Said another voice and Paine turned to see a copper haired youth stroll down from one of the plant choked pillar nonchalantly.  
  
'Who are you?' she asked tensing up again.  
  
'I'm Injustice, one of the High Ones.' He said extending a friendly hand.  
  
Paine looked at it warily her eyes widening. 'You're the one who they said would come to kill me and Squall.' She breathed.  
  
'I figured they would say that but the truth is I now want to help you. Squall is waiting for you and I'm not sure we have much time left before we're found out.' Injustice told her.  
  
'Truly?' Paine asked lowering her sword slightly.  
  
'Yes, truly. But we have to hurry.' Injustice told her a little impatiently.  
  
'I think it's too late for that.' Came a masculine voice and Fate appeared from nowhere.  
  
Injustice turned to him staring into his blue eyes. 'So you want to try and stop me huh? After your first plan failed you want to kill her and see me take the rap.' He growled.  
  
'All you have to do is leave her here.' Fate replied staying on the spot glaring back intently.  
  
'No chance! Sever grab Paine and take her to the Junction now!' Injustice yelled and then dived at Fate.  
  
Fate fell back under Injustice and the two High Ones rolled around on the ground each trying to get the upper hand. Behind them Tidus had grabbed Paine's hand and pulled her off to the invisible portal to the Junction and they faded from sight.  
  
Fate and Injustice clawed at each other, rivulets of blood flowing from tiny cuts, for although they couldn't die they could still damage each other. Injustice finally got the upper hand and pinned Fate down raining down blow after blow, the hatred and the anger at being used finally finding an outlet. Yet through it all Fate just laughed and Injustice realised why when Death and Time came from nowhere and grabbed one of his arms each and dragged him off holding him tightly.  
  
'Foolish whelp! Did you really think I'd come alone?' Fate told him spiting blood.  
  
'Maybe, you're always so damn arrogant.' Injustice said grinning not even attempting to struggle from their grasp.  
  
'And now it's over Injustice, whatever you have planned for Paine and Squall ends here, we shall have the Key.' Fate said and started going through Injustice's pockets who just grinned wider as he was held there.  
  
Fate looked up at him in a look of pure hatred when it turned out that the search of the pockets proved fruitless. 'Where is it?' Fate hissed.  
  
'Oh I couldn't tell you that... wouldn't be no fun then.' Injustice chuckled.  
  
Time and Death looked at each other solemnly as they held their brother tighter.  
  
'Then maybe I can find a way of making you talk...' Fate said menacingly as he drew nearer. 


	28. It's On

It's On  
  
She gazed around looking at the swirling lights and the pinpricks of starlight as she followed the creature named Sever through a transparent walkway through the voids of space.  
  
'Where are we?' she asked in awe.  
  
'Lost...' Sever said softly.  
  
'What?' Paine asked bewildered.  
  
'We should be within the Junction with your brother now not here, something went wrong...' Sever said slowly.  
  
'So now what do we do?' Paine demanded, Sever flinching at her voice.  
  
'We'll have to use this.' Sever replied timorously as he drew the Key from under the ragged remains of his cloak.  
  
'What's that?' Paine asked as she stared at the spiky metal object in Sever's spidery hands.  
  
'It's the Key, it controls what we call the Junction, the hub that connects all places and times everywhere. With it we should be able to find our way back and also keep the High Ones at bay.' Sever told her and held it out on his palm.  
  
'What about Injustice?' Paine asked as she watched the Key swivel on Sever's palm and point ahead.  
  
'I don't know, he won't be able to find us either, then again if he's been captured that's probably just as well.' Sever muttered and closed his hand on the Key motioning Paine to follow him.  
  
He spat in defiance, red blood spattering onto Fate's robes making him grin twistedly with fat lips.  
  
'You can't kill me so why don't you just give up?' Injustice said smugly.  
  
'That may be so but we can make you feel extreme discomfort that you may wish you could die.' Fate said malevolently twisting the flesh of Injustice's arm as Time held it out taut.  
  
Injustice grimaced but wouldn't give them the satisfaction of his screams, even if the pain made spots of colour flash in his vision.  
  
He couldn't discorporate out of their grasp, their combined powers too strong for him to break free. 'He probably gave it to that fool Sever.' Death said dryly, looking away from his brother's torture.  
  
'If that's the case we still can't find them, unless Sever was foolish enough to give himself away. The Key will camouflage them so long as they hold it and remain in the Vortices.' Fate replied.  
  
'Admit it Fate you're just doing this cause you're enjoying it. I know for a fact you wouldn't have thought I'd attack you while keeping the Key in my possession...' Injustice said and was interrupted as Fate's fist slammed into his jaw again.  
  
'You will stop the lies and tell us what you plan to do with them.' Fate snapped.  
  
'You know exactly what I intend to do, the thing you fear most.' Injustice replied blood trickling from his lip and notice the very faint flicker in Fate's expression.  
  
Time and Death looked at each other and then Fate.  
  
'What is this?' Time asked her grip loosening ever so slightly.  
  
'More lies!' Fate barked and leaned in towards Injustice.  
  
Injustice used Time's and Death's uncertainty to lunge forward his forehead smashing into Fate's nose making him reel backwards whilst Injustice pulled from the others grasps, finally free.  
  
'Now that was worth it.' Injustice grinned and kicked Fate's prone form before he quickly discorporated and faded.  
  
Time and Death rushed forward to grasp Injustice but were too late and so turned to Fate helping him up.  
  
Fate shrugged them off brusquely. 'That damn whelp!' he roared clutching his nose.  
  
'Find him!' he barked and the others faded quickly to get away from his wrath, Fate's face was as red as the blood that seeped through his fingers.  
  
Sever and Paine walked through a solid wall of blackness that marked one of the many entrances to the Junction. As they entered Squall looked up and Protes stood quickly.  
  
'Where's Injustice?' Protes said in his gravely voice.  
  
'The others got him.' Sever replied.  
  
Squall and Paine stood staring at each other in silence unable to believe what they were seeing, that they were finally together.  
  
'Good...' Protes growled and in one sweep of his arm slammed Paine across the space within the Junction slamming her into one of its sides.  
  
'Protes what are you doing?' Sever asked in shock whilst Squall glared in anger.  
  
Protes laughed dryly. 'Exactly what was planned Tidus! Now one of them has to die and you have the choice... Paine or Squall?' he told Sever.  
  
Tidus' yellow eyes dimmed in bewilderment. 'What's going on?'  
  
Protes rolled his own eyes at Tidus' stupidity. 'I never betrayed Fate... it was all a ruse to get yours and Injustice's trust, culminating into control of the Junction and the arrival to the Twins, and one of their deaths... totally attributable to you.' He sneered.  
  
Tidus growled. 'Damn you!!' he yelled and leapt at Protes latching onto his thick neck and slamming his bony knees into his back.  
  
Protes laughed reaching behind and pulling the flailing Tidus off him and held him out ahead. He then reached out with his free hand and pulled the Key from under his robes. He then threw Tidus at Squall, who was charging towards him, the two of them colliding and sent sprawling.  
  
'Well I guess you shall still continue to be a puppet... just like your creator. You want to know what that special quality that Injustice was alluding to before when he said you could be the strongest of Immortals? It was the fact you have a fragment of Injustice inside you. When they created you, you were meant to lead Yuna to her death by Sin and continue the cycle but Injustice put a part of himself in you so that you'd rebel... shame it only worked while you were on Spira, Death did a good job brainwashing you.' Protes said mockingly.  
  
He then turned from the two groaning figures and turned to the limp form of Paine.  
  
'Well I guess you shall have to die little girl, we have no further need for you... such a shame.' Protes whispered malevolently and slowly approached her, his huge hands clenching into fists. 


	29. Protest

Protest  
  
Paine opened her eyes, her vision blurry as she looked up at the multifaceted huge creature that stood before her, its huge fists looming overhead. Her body and head ached from the first unexpected blow it had struck and she was unable to move and knew she wasn't going to survive another blow. She closed her eyes and consoled herself that at least she got to see her brother in the flesh although if only they'd been able to touch so she could prove to herself this wasn't all a dream.  
  
She heard a snarl in the background and she opened her eyes to see the stony figure turn and face someone.  
  
'Leave her alone!' Squall yelled and drew his blade.  
  
'Are you in that much of a rush to die... think of all that you will leave behind if you take her place.' Protes told him.  
  
'You're the one who's going to die.' Squall said harshly his eyes glowing with fury.  
  
Protes laughed heartily. 'You really think you can defeat me with that blade? My body can withstand all metals, I'm not some flesh and blood puppet like Rage or Sephiroth!' he retorted.  
  
Squall didn't reply and just charged at Protes, blade held low until he was close enough and he swung it up, the blade clashing into Protes' forearm as he raised it to defend himself.  
  
There were sparks and fragments of Protes' arm showered down to the ground as Squall's blade rebounded.  
  
Protes looked at his arm in shock as dark viscous black blood oozed from the wound.  
  
'How?' he muttered to himself bewildered.  
  
Squall raised his sword, which was dark and crackled with blue light. 'Maybe you don't realise exactly what I have here.' He replied grinning.  
  
'ATMA Weapon?' Protes gasped and tried to protect himself from the next blow, which severed his arm.  
  
'I guess that this doesn't belong in the list of metals that your body can withstand.' Squall snarled as he slashed Protes' chest, black blood oozing from the groove.  
  
Squall's body was quivering with anger, righteousness and above all the power that flowed up his arm as blood bathed the blade he held.  
  
In his mind a voice raged. 'My sister! Mine! Leave her alone!' it screamed over and over as he hacked and slashed at Protes' rocky body, crystalline shards flying everywhere as heavy droplets of pitch black blood hit the ground. Protes was unable to stand up to Squall's onslaught, his body and limbs ravaged by the malevolent blade that was ATMA. He looked up in silent supplication as Squall brought down the final blow severing Protes' head from his mutilated form.  
  
Squall fell back exhausted, the adrenalin and anger sapping the energy from his body. His gaze flickered from Protes' dead form, to Tidus who still lay unconscious and then to Paine, his sister, who still sat crumpled against an invisible wall. It was then that Squall noticed a shimmer in the air around him, a slight ripple in some sort of fabric, which changed colour briefly as light caught it.  
  
He was aware of a sound and turned from his seated position to see Injustice's battered form falling into the void of the Junction.  
  
'The Key! Where is it?' Injustice muttered urgently through bloodied lips.  
  
He then noticed Protes' corpse. 'And what the Hell happened here?' he asked.  
  
He didn't wait for an answer but dived on Protes' severed arm and prised the Key from his fist. 'Good... we're safe for now.' Injustice said softly and looked at Squall and the fallen others.  
  
'I'm gone five minutes and all Hell breaks loose...' he said wryly grinning at Squall.  
  
'Yeah well Protes here was working for Fate...' Squall said prodding Protes' remains.  
  
'I see...' Injustice said and caught sight of Paine as she started to push herself up the wall. 'I wish my brethren cared as much for me...' he spat sarcastically.  
  
Squall and Injustice both stood and headed towards Paine who stumbled in their direction. Squall caught her by the arms as she fell drawing her in, whilst Injustice looked on bemused.  
  
'Nothing..?' he muttered.  
  
'What?' Squall asked him as Paine looked up at him blearily, smiling fuzzily.  
  
'Isn't something meant to happen when you touch? Surely that's why Fate kept you apart?' Injustice said mainly to himself.  
  
'Don't ask me, all of what your kind has done has been a puzzle to me.' Squall retorted.  
  
'We aren't touching...' Paine said softly blinking.  
  
'I'm holding you...' Squall replied softly.  
  
'But there's still things in the way... we both wear gloves... because we fear intimacy, don't want to touch anyone who might be taken away from us... but I must touch you just to prove to myself that you're real.' Paine told him pulling away and peeling one of her long gloves off dropping it to the ground as she then reached up to trace Squall's scar. 


	30. Chaos

Chaos  
  
Her fingertips tentatively touched the pale line on his forehead running down his face tracing his features as her red eyes gazed intently into his, sparkling with delight as her mouth twitched into a smile.  
  
'We really are together.' She said softly.  
  
Squall smiled in reply and then followed her example and tugged his own glove off and gently clasped her hand. 'It's hard to believe isn't it.' He told her.  
  
Injustice looked away from what to him was sickening affection and so he was the first to notice the darkening of all that surrounded them and the rising of a dark cloud forming, condensing and solidifying.  
  
'Free at last...' a voice hissed dryly growing in strength becoming richer, smoother.  
  
A figure emerged from the cloud and smiled perfect white teeth at Injustice. He seemed middle aged with dark hear greying at the temples, his eyes orbs of steel grey, but Injustice was well aware beings such as he could alter their appearance.  
  
'Not to you I can't.' the figure told him.  
  
'How...?' Injustice asked bewildered.  
  
'There is nothing that can be hidden from me.' The figure said softly.  
  
Squall and Paine broke away from their own private world to gaze upon the strange figure dressed in a robe made of fractured pieces of colour that roamed continually, passing through one another.  
  
The figure beamed at them. 'So the seal has finally been repaired.' He said.  
  
'What?' Squall asked.  
  
'Who are you?' Paine asked her brow crinkling slightly.  
  
The figure chuckled looking at all three bemused faces.  
  
'One at a time... I guess I should explain... I am Chaos.' He told them and clicked his fingers, a chair appearing out of nowhere so that he could sit on it.  
  
'Please sit...' he told them and clicked again three chairs appearing.  
  
They obeyed the voice unable not to.  
  
'I can guess knowing my name will not explain anything... my imprisonment erased my existence.' Chaos told them.  
  
'Imprisonment?' Injustice asked.  
  
'Yes I was imprisoned by Fate, when he tore these two poor souls apart he created a rift that trapped me and removed me from existence... blanking all memories of me except in him... if only I knew how he achieved that...' Chaos told them.  
  
'I placed it in the one place where it wouldn't be warped...' Fate's voice came from the shadows.  
  
'Of course I should've guessed... how fortunate that you were able to find it again... your plan would've been foiled if one of the others had come across your memories here.' Chaos said standing as Fate stepped into the light.  
  
Chaos clenched his fist and Fate's body flinched, crumpling in on itself. Fate screamed in agony as he slowly dissolved away.  
  
'You pitiful, treacherous child. I created you and this is how you repay me? I gave you the power to control the destinies, I favoured you above all my children and your greed devoured you. You shall be cast back to the nothingness from whence you came, you are no longer my son!' Chaos bellowed and there was a final long scream that became deformed as Fate disappeared.  
  
'Son?' Injustice said surprised his eyes wide open.  
  
'Of course... I am the Father of everything. Creator and Destroyer of all.' Chaos told him his fist opening and dust falling from it.  
  
Time and Death crept into the light meekly, their heads bowed in supplication.  
  
'And now the sheep return to the herd!' Chaos sneered.  
  
'Father...' Death started to say.  
  
'Silence! Weaklings the pair of you!' Chaos snapped and then sighed. 'But I suppose that was how I made you... you control your realms well but they are not resistant against Fate.' He added softly.  
  
'And me?' Injustice suddenly snarled.  
  
Chaos raised his eyebrows questionably.  
  
'You made me this way!? The black sheep of the family... always on the outside, me against them! Never to win!' Injustice ranted.  
  
'But there had to be an opposite to Fate or there would be no balance, and everything I had made would've unravelled.' Chaos replied calmly.  
  
'What balance? I'm made to scheme, destroy and yet the outcome is always the same!' Injustice yelled not even slightly mollified.  
  
'Enough!' Chaos told him.  
  
'NO! I'm not a child! I will not be cowed! I set you free!' Injustice snapped.  
  
'Yes you won...' Chaos replied softly.  
  
Injustice opened his mouth to retort but couldn't think of anything to say.  
  
'It all makes sense... trust me.' Chaos told him.  
  
Squall and Paine had been sitting watching this dysfunctional family and Squall finally asked. 'What's this have to do with us?'  
  
'Pure luck. The separation of the souls of Twin Heroes causes a rift between the two of them. This rift can contain many things but cannot be seen or felt by anything. It stretches the distance between the two souls, which is why Fate put you onto two totally different worlds. The rift is also responsible for a troublesome life but then again the lives of Heroes is never easy. However the rift gives immense power to the souls that have created it also... which increases as the two draw near.' Chaos explained.  
  
'Anyway I guess that is enough explaining... although I have been away for only eighteen human years the damage caused by Fate is far reaching in both directions of time and all directions of space. A problem occurs in that the two of you cannot be separated again lest I disappear once more so you have to decide which world you want to be returned to... which ever world you leave your existence will be erased... though your deeds will be done by someone else.' Chaos told them.  
  
Squall and Paine looked at each other in silence. Paine finally broke it. 'I want to go to Squall's world, Spira has nothing for me but mostly bad memories.' She told Chaos.  
  
'Are you sure?' Squall asked hoping that her knowledge of his life, all he had back home hadn't put pressure on her for he'd gladly give all that up if he could go with her. After all look what he had come through so far.  
  
'Yes.' Paine said firmly.  
  
Behind them was a groan as Tidus finally awoke. 'What's going on?' he said muzzily. 'Chaos?' he gasped and knelt before him.  
  
'Hey how does Tidus know you?' Injustice asked.  
  
'Tidus?' Paine muttered softly to herself.  
  
'The fragment of yourself that you bestowed upon him must have held some memory of me.' Chaos said simply.  
  
'Rise my child.' Chaos told the quivering Tidus.  
  
As he rose his body changed, his limbs fleshing out becoming more muscular, long fingers shortening to more normal standards. His head also changed becoming more human and blond hair sprouted from his bald head forming long locks that he vaguely remembered.  
  
'I'm me...' he whispered in awe.  
  
'A gift to you.' Chaos said smiling.  
  
'I ask for another gift.' Paine interrupted.  
  
'Of course.' Chaos said graciously.  
  
'Tidus has to be returned to Yuna.' Paine said simply.  
  
Tidus glanced at her his eyes brightening.  
  
'That can be arranged.' Chaos told her making Tidus grin widely.  
  
'But for now we have to send you home and then me and my children can catch up on many things.' Chaos told them and swirls of light surrounded Squall and Paine as well as Tidus.  
  
He opened his eyes and found himself lying in bed. He sat up quickly and gazed round confused. He ran a hand through his hair, thinking to himself wildly.  
  
'No it couldn't have all been a crazy dream?' he thought to himself.  
  
Even when Ellone had been taken away he had never dreamt anything as lucid and detailed as that... never dreamt of a replacement or of all powerful beings that controlled everything... something like that had to be real surely?  
  
His door opened and a woman in black stood in the doorway, her grey hair hanging down in her red eyes, her lips pulled into a wide smile.  
  
Squall gazed at her and blinked as if not believing she was there. 'So it was real?' he said out loud in disbelief.  
  
'Of course sleepy head.' Paine teased. 'Now that I'm living here are you going to show me around this place of yours or not?' she added grinning. 


	31. Final Resolutions

Final Resolutions  
  
Injustice looked down into the portal in the centre of the Junction, smiling to himself happily. His fat lips and wounds had all disappeared now and he was watching the happy endings of others in a new light. Tidus was finally reunited with Yuna, Paine's role on Spira had been taken over by a young woman of a somewhat similar appearance and no one realised the difference.  
  
But that was the power of Chaos, in the instant that Paine and Squall were returned everything had been altered to fit Paine's shifting of worlds, well everything except all that happened on Squall's world and what had happened to the High Ones who now numbered Three. Chaos could not undo what Squall and his colleagues had endured and so to them Paine had come from another world. Also Purity was still down there, what with no Fate being able to call her back.  
  
Also Death and Time were each an Immortal down but Chaos deemed this a punishment for their lack of willpower to go against Fate. If they were too weak not to be able to fend for themselves then he felt that having more power would not help them if it were to be turned against others... others namely being Injustice.  
  
Injustice was still the dark one, the black sheep, the one who schemed and controlled those entities that would try to destroy or control the world they inhabit. He hadn't much to do right now since Fate's role was vacant and so he was using it to see the endings he usually despised... Paine's introduction to Squall's life and friends, the happiness they shared having finally been rejoined. The there was Tidus once more in the arms of the love that had been torn from him in more ways than one. It was strange to be watching him like this, he was his son in a way. Injustice wondered if Chaos had ever watched him from his place like this or if he was doing it now.  
  
Injustice sighed softly holding the Junction Key in his hand, the portal closing and the visions of them all fading away. His father had gone away once more taking back control of the Multi-verse and correcting all the faults Fate had created in his greed for power. It was weird of having a father figure, especially one he couldn't remember having ever existed before now... it seemed even Chaos couldn't replace that. Injustice grinned to himself, at least he knew who to blame for his existence being the way it was. All he had to do now was wait until Chaos created a new Fate and the struggles would begin all over again... only this time he wouldn't be tricked or be the baby of the family.  
  
Author's note: Well that's finally the end. This is the first fanfic that I have written by making it up I've gone along which may be evident in its erratic style. Usually when I write I have some basic sequence of events that I string along... but here I just started with the premise that Squall and Paine are alike and went from there. Anyways this has been my most popular fic and I thank all of you who have sent in your comments. Also big thanks to T.a.i.n.e Dreamz for reviewing the first and originally only chapter and urging me to carry on the story. Hopefully you'll all read my other present and future fics. Thanks again... Blackened. 


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